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*     MAY   4   1900      * 


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ORIENTAL  WORKS. 


Ancient  India;  Its  Language  and  Religion.  By  Fiof.  H. 
Oldenberg.     Pages,  ix,  no.     Cloth,  50c  (2s.  6d.). 

Lao-Tze's  Tao-Teh-King.  Chinese-English.  By  Dr.  Paul 
Cams.     Pages,  360.     Blue  and  gold  binding,  $3.00  (15s.). 

Chinese  Philosophy,  ^y  Dr.  Paul  Carus.  Paper,  25c  (is.  6d.j. 

Chinese  Fiction.  By  the  Rei'.  George  T.  Candlin.  With  Il- 
lustrations From  Original  Chinese  Works.  Pp.,  51.  Paper, 
15c  (gd.). 

Buddhism  and  Its  Christian  Critics.  By  Dr.  Pazd  Carus. 
Pages,  311.     Cloth,  $1.25  (6s.  6d.). 

The  Gospel  of  Buddha.  By  Dr.  Paul  Carus.  Sixth  edition. 
Cloth,  gi.oo  (5s.). 

The  Redemption  of  the  Brahman.  A  Novel  of  Indian  Life. 
By  Richard  Garbe.  Pages,  96.  Laid  paper.  Veg.  parch, 
binding,  gilt  top,  75c  (3s.  6d.). 

The  Philosophy  of  Ancient  India.  By  Prof.  Richard  Garbe. 
Second  Edition.     Pages,  89.     Cloth,  50c  (2s.  yd.). 

Travels  in  Tartary,  Thibet,  and  China,  of  the  Jesuit  Mis- 
sionaries MM.  Hue  and  Gabet  (1844-1846).  Translated  from 
Jhe  French  by  W.  Hazlitt.  Two  Vols.  Illustrated.  Pages, 
688.     Cloth,  J2.00  (los.). 

History  of  the  People  of  Israel.  By  C  H.  Cornill.  and  ed. 
Pp.,  325.    Cloth,  $1.50  (7s.  6d.). 

History  of  the  Devil.  By  Dr.  Paul  Carus.  Pp.,  circa  500. 
Profusely  Illustrated.     (In  Preparation.) 

Solomon,  and  Solomonic  Literature.  By  M.  D.  Conway. 
Pp.,  243.     Cloth,  $1.50  (6s.). 


THE  OPEN  COURT  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 


Kegan  Paul,  Trench,  Triibner  &  Co.,  Ltd. 


SOLOMON 


SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE 


BY 

MONCURE   DANIEL   CONWAY 


LONDON 
KEGAN  PAUL.  TRENCH,  TRUBNER  &  CO.,  Ltd. 

I'ATERNOSTER   HOUSE,   CHARING  CROSS  ROAD 

Chicago:  the  open  court  publishing  company 
1899 


COPYRIGHT   BY 

The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co. 
CHICAGO,  u.  s.  A. 

1899 
All  rights  reserved. 


INSCRIBED 

TO  MY  BROTHER  OMARIANS 

OF  THE 

OMAR    KHAYYAM   CLUB 
LONDON 


"Seek  the  circle  of  the  wise  :  flee  a  thousand  leagues  from 
men  ivithoiit  ivit.  If  a  wise  man  give  thee  poison,  drink  it  with- 
out fear ;  if  a  fool  proffer  au  antidote,  spill  it  on  the  ground." 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Preface  .......        v 

CHAPTER    1 
Solomon     .......  i 

CHAPTER    II 
The  Judgment  of   Solomon  -  -  -  -         12 

CHAPTER    III 
TiiK  Wives  of  Solomon  ....  24 

CHAPTER    IV 
Solomon's  Idolatry  .....         30 

CHAPTER    V 
Solomon  and  the  Satans      ....  34 

CHAPTER  VI 
Solomon  in  the  Hexateuch       -  -  -  -        41 

CHAPTER    VII 
Solomonic  Antijahvism  ....  51 

CHAPTER    VIII 
The  Book  of  Proverbs  and  the  Avesta        -  -         59" 

CHAPTER    IX 
The  Song  of  Songs      -----  89 

iii 


IV  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

CHAPTER    X 

KOHELETH    (ECCLESIASTES)  ....       104 

CHAPTER    XI 
Wisdom  (Ecclesiasticus)         -  -  -  -  m 

CHAPTER    Xn 
The  Wisdom  of  Solomon   -  -  -  .  -     ii8 

CHAPTER    Xni 

Epistle    to    the    Hebrews    (A    Sequel    to    Sophia 

SoLOMONTOs)  -  -  -  -  .  129 

CHAPTER    XIV 
Solomon  Melchizedek        -  -  -  -  -     150 

CHAPTER    XV 
The  Pauline  Dehumanization  of  Jesus  -  164 

CHAPTER    XVI 

The  Mythological  Mantle  of  Solomon   Fallen  on 

Jesus  .......     iy6 

CHAPTER    XVII 
The  Heir  of  Solomon's  Godhead  -  .  194 

CHAPTER    XVIII 
The  Last  Solomon  .....     207 

CHAPTER    XIX 
Postscrxpta  ......  234 


PREFACE. 

An  English  lady  of  my  acquaintance,  sojourning  at 
Baalbek,  was  conversing  with  an  humble  stonecutter, 
and  pointing  to  the  grand  ruins  inquired,  "Why  do  you 
not  occupy  yourself  with  magnificent  work  like  that?" 
"Ah,"  he  said,  "those  edifices  were  built  by  no  mortal, 
but  by  genii." 

These  genii  now  represent  the  demons  which  in 
ancient  legends  were  enslaved  by  the  potency  of 
Solomon's  ring.  Some  of  these  folk-tales  suggest  the 
ingenuity  of  a  fabulist.  According  to  one,  Solomon 
outwitted  the  devils  even  after  his  death,  which  occurred 
while  he  was  leaning  on  his  stafif  and  superintending 
the  reluctant  labors  of  the  demons  on  some  sacred 
edifice.  In  that  posture  his  form  remained  for  a  year 
after  his  death,  and  it  was  not  until  a  worm  gnawed 
the  end  of  his  staff,  causing  his  body  to  fall,  that  the 
demons  discovered  their  freedom. 

If  this  be  a  fable,  a  modern  moral  may  be  found  by 
reversing  the  delusion.  The  general  world  has  for  ages 
been  working  on  under  the  spell  of  Solomon  while 
believing  him  to  be  dead.  Solomon  is  very  much  alive. 
Many  witnesses  of  his  talismanic  might  can  be  sum- 
moned from  the  homes  and  schools  wherein  the  rod  is 
not  spared,  however  much  it  spoils  the  child,  and  where 
youth's  "flower  of  age"  bleaches  in  a  puritan  cell  be- 
cause the  "wisest  of  men"  is  supposed  to  have  testified 
that  all  earth's  pleasures  are  vanity.     And  how  many 

V 


vi  PREFACE. 

parents  are  in  their  turn  feeling  the  recoil  of  the  rod, 
and  live  to  deplore  the  intemperate  thirst  for  "vanities" 
stimulated  in  homes  overshadoAved  by  the  fear-of-God 
wisdom  for  which  Solomon  is  also  held  responsible? 
On  the  other  hand,  what  parson  has  not  felt  the  rod 
bequeathed  to  the  sceptic  by  the  king  whom  Biblical 
authority  pronounces  at  once  the  worldliest  and  the 
wisest  of  mankind? 

More  imposing,  if  not  more  significant,  are  certain 
picturesque  phenomena  which  to-day  represent  the 
bifold  evolution  of  the  Solomonic  legend.  While  in 
various  parts  of  Europe  "Solomon's  Seal,"  survival 
from  his  magic  ring,  is  the  token  of  conjuring  and 
fortune-telling  impostors,  the  knightly  Order  of  Solo- 
mon's Seal  in  Abyssinia  has  been  raised  to  moral  dig- 
nity by  an  emperor  (Menelik)  who  has  given  European 
monarchs  a  lesson  in  magnanimity  and  gallantry  by 
presenting  to  a  "Queen  of  the  South"  (Margharita), 
on  her  birthday,  release  of  the  captives  who  had  invaded 
his  country.  While  this  is  the  tradition  of  nobility 
which  has  accompanied  that  of  lineal  descent  from  the 
Wise  Man,  his  name  lingers  in  the  rest  of  Christen- 
dom in  proverbial  connexion  with  any  kind  of  sagacity, 
while  as  a  Biblical  personality  he  is  virtually  suppressed. 

In  one  line  of  evolution, — whose  historic  factors  have 
been  Jahvism,  Pharisaism,  and  Puritanism, — Solomon 
has  been  made  the  Adam  of  a  second  fall.  His  Eves 
gave  him  the  fruit  that  was  pleasant  and  desirable  to 
make  one  wise,  and  he  did  eat.  Jahveh  retracts  his 
compliments  to  Solomon,  and  makes  the  na'ive  admis- 
sion that  deity  itself  cannot  endow  a  man  with  the 
wisdom  that  can  ensure  orthodoxy,  or  with  knowledge 


PREFACE.  vii 

impregnable  by  feminine  charms  (Nehemiah  xiii.)  ; 
and  from  that  time  Solomon  disappears  from  canon- 
ical Hebrew  books  except  those  ascribed  to  his  own 
authorship. 

That  some  writings  attributed  to  Solomon, — espe- 
cially the  "Song  of  Songs"  and  "Koheleth"  (Ecclesi- 
astes), — were  included  in  the  canon,  may  be  ascribed 
to  a  superstitious  fear  of  suppressing  utterances  of  a 
supernatural  wisdom,  set  as  an  oracle  in  the  king  and 
never  revoked.  This  view  is  confirmed  and  illustrated 
in  several  further  pages,  but  it  may  be  added  here  that 
the  very  idolatries  and  alleged  sins  of  Solomon  led  to 
the  detachment  from  his  personal  self  of  his  divinely- 
conferred  Wisdom,  and  her  personification  as  some- 
thing apart  from  him  in  various  avatars  (preserving 
his  glory  while  disguising  his  name),  an  evolution  cul- 
minating in  ideals  and  creeds  that  have  largely  moulded 
Christendom. 

The  two  streams  of  evolution  here  suggested,  one 
issuing  from  the  wisdom  books,  the  other  from  the  law 
books,  are  traceable  in  their  collisions,  their  periods  of 
parallelism,  and  their  convergence, — where,  however, 
their  respective  inspirations  continue  distinguishable, 
like  the  waters  of  the  Missouri  and  the  Mississippi  after 
they  flow  between  the  same  banks. 

The  present  essays  by  no  means  claim  to  have  fully 
traced  these  lines  of  evolution,  but  aim  at  their  indica- 
tion. The  only  critique  to  which  it  pretends  is  literary. 
The  studies  and  experiences  of  many  years  have  left 
mc  without  any  bias  concerning  the  contents  of  the 
Bible,  or  any  belief,  ethical  or  religious,  that  can  be 
affected  by  the  fate  of  any  scripture  under  the  higher 


viii  PREFACE. 

or  other  criticism.  But  my  interest  in  Biblical  litera- 
ture has  increased  with  the  perception  of  its  composite 
character  ethnically.  I  believe  that  I  have  made  a  few 
discoveries  in  it;  and  a  volume  adopted  as  an  educa- 
tional text-book  requires  every  ray  of  light  which  any 
man  feels  able  to  contribute  to  its  interpretation. 


SOLOMONIC   LITERATURE. 


CHAPTER    I. 

SOLOMON. 

There  is  a  vast  Solomon  mythology:  in  Palestine, 
Abyssinia,  Arabia,  Persia,  India,  and  Europe,  the  myths 
and  legends  concerning  the  traditional  Wisest  Man  are 
various,  and  merit  a  comparative  study  they  have  not 
received.  As  the  name  Solomon  seems  to  be  allegori- 
cal, it  is  not  possible  to  discover  whether  he  is  mentioned 
in  any  contemporary  inscription  by  a  real  name,  and  the 
external  and  historical  data  are  insufficient  to  prove  cer- 
tainly that  an  individual  Solomon  ever  existed.*  But 
that  a  great  personality  now  known  under  that  name 
did  exist,  about  three  thousand  years  ago,  will,  I  believe, 
be  recognised  by  those  who  study  the  ancient  literature 
relating  to  him.  The  earliest  and  most  useful  docu- 
ments for  such  an  investigation  are  :  the  first  collection 
of  Proverbs,  x-xxii.  i6;  the  second  collection,  xxv- 
xxix.  27  ;  Psalms  ii.,  xlv.,  Ixxii.,  evidently  Solomonic  ; 
2  Samuel  xii.  24,  25 ;  and  i  Kings  iv.  29-34. 

As,  however,  the  object  of  this  essay  is  not  to  prove 
the  existence  of  Solomon,  but  to  study  the  evolution  of 

*  The  name  given  to  him  in  2  Sam.  xii,  2'-,,  Jedidiah  ("beloved  of  Jah''),  by 
the  prophet  of  Jahveh,  is,  however,  an  important  item  in  considering  the 
question  of  an  actual  monarch  behind  the  allegorical  name,  especially  as  the 
writer  of  the  book,  in  adding  "for  J.ihveh's  sake"  seems  to  strain  the  sense 
of  the  name  — somewhat  as  the  name  "  Jesus  "  is  strained  to  mean  saviour  in 
Matt.  i.  21.    Jedidiah  looks  like  a  Jahvist  niuditication  of  a  real  name  (seep.  20). 


2  SOLOMONIC   LITERATURE. 

the  human  heart  and  mind  under  influences  of  which 
a  pecuhar  series  is  historically  associated  with  his  name, 
he  will  be  spoken  of  as  a  genuine  figure,  the  reader  being 
left  to  form  his  own  conclusion  as  to  whether  he  was 
such,  if  that  incidental  point  interests  him. 

The  indirect  intimations  concerning  Solomon  in  the 
Proverbs  and  Psalms  may  be  better  understood  if  we 
first  consider  the  historical  books  which  profess  to  give 
an  account  of  his  career.  And  the  search  naturally 
begins  with  the  passage  in  the  Book  of  Kings  just 
referred  to : 

"And  God  gave  Solomon  wisdom  and  intelligence  exceed- 
ing much,  and  largeness  of  heart,  even  as  the  sand  on  the 
seashore.  And  Solomon's  wisdom  excelled  the  wisdom  of 
all  the  children  of  the  East,  and  all  the  wisdom  of  Egypt. 
For  he  was  wiser  than  all  men;  than  Ethan  the  Ezrahite, 
and  Heman,  and  Calcol,  and  Darda,  the  sons  of  Mahol ; 
and  his  fame  was  in  all  the  surrounding  nations.  He  spake 
three  thousand  parables,  and  his  songs  were  a  thousand 
and  five.  He  spake  of  trees,  from  the  cedar  of  Lebanon  to  the 
hj'ssop  that  springeth  out  of  the  wall :  he  spake  also  of 
beasts,  birds,  reptiles,  fishes.  And  there  came  people  of  all 
countries  to  hear  the  wisdom  of  Solomon,  and  from  all  the 
kings  of  the  earth,  which  had 'heard  of  his  wisdom." 

This  passage  is  Elohist :  it  is  the  Elohim — perhaps 
here  the  gods — v/ho  gave  Solomon  wisdom.  The  intro- 
duction of  Jahveh  as  the  giver,  in  the  dramatic  dream 
of  Chapter  iii.,  alters  the  nature  of  the  gift,  which  from 
the  Elohim  is  scientific  and  literary  wisdom,  but  from 
Jahveh  is  political,  related  to  government  and  judgment. 

As  for  Mahol  and  his  four  sons,  the  despair  of  Bibli- 
cal historians,  they  are  now  witnesses  that  this  passage 
was  v/ritten  when  those  men, — or  perhaps  masculine 


SOLOMON.  3 

Muses, — were  famous,  thoug-h  they  are  unknown  within 
any  period  that  can  be  called  historical.  As  intimated, 
they  may  be  figures  from  some  vanished  mythology 
Hebraised  into  ]\Iahol  {dance'),  Ethan  (the  iiii perish- 
able), Heman  {faithful),  Calcol  {sustenance),  Darda 
{pearl  of  knozvledge). 

In  speaking  of  I  Kings  iv.  29-34  as  substantially  his- 
torical it  is  not  meant,  of  course,  that  it  is  free  from  the 
extravagance  characteristic  of  ancient  annals,  but  that 
it  is  the  nearest  approach  to  Solomon's  era  in  the  so- 
called  historical  books,  and,  although  the  stage  of  ideal- 
isation has  been  reached,  is  free  from  the  mythology 
which  grew  around  the  name  of  Solomon. 

But  while  we  have  thus  only  one  small  scrap  of 
even  quasi-historical  writing  that  can  be  regarded  as 
approaching  Solomon's  era,  the  traditions  concerning 
him  preserved  in  the  Book  of  Kings  yield  much  that  is 
of  value  when  comparatively  studied  with  annals  of  the 
chroniclers,  who  modify,  and  in  some  cases  omit,  not  to 
say  suppress,  the  earlier  record.  Such  modifications 
and  omissions,  while  interesting  indications  of  Jahvist 
influences,  are  also  testimonies  to  the  strength  of  the 
traditions  they  overlay.  The  pure  and  simple  literary 
touchstone  can  alone  be  trusted  amid  such  traditions ; 
it  alone  can  distinguish  the  narratives  that  have  basis, 
that  could  not  have  been  entirely  invented. 

In  the  Book  of  Chronicles, — for  the  division  into  two 
books  was  by  Christians,  as  also  was  the  division  of  the 
Book  of  Kings, — we  find  an  ecclesiastical  work  written 
after  the  captivity,  but  at  different  periods  and  by  dif- 
ferent hands ;  it  is  in  the  historic  form,  but  really  does 
not  aim  at  history.  The  main  purpose  of  the  first 
chronicler  is  to  establish  certain  genealogies  and  con- 


4  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

quests  related  to  the  consecration  of  the  house  and  Hne- 
age  of  David.  Solomon's  greatness  and  his  building 
of  the  temple  are  here  transferred  as  far  as  ix)ssible  to 
David.*  David  captures  from  various  countries  the 
gold,  silver,  and  brass,  and  dedicates  them  for  use  in 
the  temple,  which  he  plans  in  detail,  but  which  Jahveh 
forbade  him  to  build  himself.  The  reason  of  this  pro- 
hibition is  far  from  clear  to  the  first  writer  on  the  com- 
pilation, but  apparently  it  was  because  David  was  not 
sufficiently  highborn  and  renowned.  "I  took  thee  from 
the  sheepcote,"  says  Jahveh,  but  adds,  "I  will  make  thee 
a  name  like  unto  the  name  of  the  great  ones  that  are  in 
the  earth;"  also,  says  Jahveh,  "I  will  subdue  all  thine 
enemies."  So  it  is  written  in  i  Chronicles  xvii.,  and  it 
could  hardly  have  been  by  the  same  hand  that  in  xxii. 
wrote  David's  words  to  Solomon : 

"It  was  in  my  heart  to  build  an  house  to  the  name  of  Jahveh 
my  God ;  but  the  word  of  Jahveh  came  to  me,  saying :  "Thou 
shalt  not  build  an  house  unto  my  name,  because  thou  hast 
shed  much  blood  upon  the  earth  in  my  sight ;  behold  a  son  shall 
be  born  unto  thee  who  shall  be  a  man  of  rest,  and  I  will 
give  him  rest  from  all  his  enemies  round  about :  for  his  name 
shall  be  Solomon  [Peaceful],  and  I  will  give  peace  and 
quietness  unto  Israel  in  his  days :  he  shall  build  an  house  for 
my  name:  and  he  shall  be  my  son,  and  I  will  be  his  father; 
and  I  will  establish  the  throne  of  his  kingdom  over  Israel 
for  ever.'  " 

In  Chapter  xvii.  Jahveh  claims  that  it  is  he  who  has 
subdued  and  cut  ofT  David's  enemies ;  his  long  speech 
is  that  of  a  war-god ;  but  in  the  xxii.  it  is  the  God  of 
Peace  who  speaks ;  and  in  harmony  with  this  character 

*  This  was  continued  in  rabbinical  and  Persian  superstitions,  which 
attribute  to  David  knowledge  of  the  language  of  birds.  It  is  said  David 
invented  coats  of  mail,  the  iron  becoming  as  wax  in  his  hands  ;  he  subjected 
the  winds  to  Solomon,  and  also  a  pearl-diving  demon. 


SOLOMON.  5 

all  the  bloodshed  by  which  Solomon's  succession  was 
accompanied,  as  recorded  in  the  Book  of  Kings,  is  sup- 
pressed, and  he  stands  to  the  day  of  his  death  the  Prince 
of  Peace.  To  him  (i  Chron.  xxviii.,  xxix.)  from  the 
first  all  the  other  sons  of  David  bow  submissively,  and 
the  people  by  a  solemn  election  confirm  David's  appoint- 
ment and  make  Solomon  their  king. 

Thus,  I  Chron.  xvii.,  which  is  identical  with  2  Sam. 
vii.,  clearly  represents  a  second  Chronicler.  The  hand 
of  the  same  writer  is  found  in  i  Chron.  xviii.,  xix.,  xx., 
and  the  chapters  partly  identical  in  2  Samuel,  namely 
viii.,  X.,  xi. ;  the  offence  of  David  then  being  narrated 
in  2  Samuel  xii.  as  the  wrong  done  Uriah,  whereas  in 
I  Chron.  xxi.  the  sin  is  numbering  Israel.  The  Chroni- 
clers know  nothing  of  the  Uriah  and  Bathsheba  story, 
but  the  onomatopoeists  may  take  note  of  the  fact  that 
David's  order  was  to  number  Israel  "from  Beer-sheha 
unto  Dan." 

The  first  ten  chapters  of  2  Chronicles  seem  to  repre- 
sent a  third  chronicler.  Here  we  find  David  in  the 
background,  and  Solomon  completely  conventionalised, 
as  the  Peaceful  Prince  of  the  Golden  Age.  All  is  pros- 
perity and  happiness.  Solomon  even  anticipates  the 
silver  millennium  :  "The  king  made  silver  to  be  in  Jeru- 
salem as  stones."  It  is  only  when  the  fourth  chronicler 
begins  (2  Chron.  x.),  with  the  succession  of  Solomon's 
son  Rehoboam,  that  we  are  told  anything  against  Solo- 
mon. Then  all  Israel  come  to  the  new  king,  saying, 
"Thy  father  made  our  yoke  grievous,"  and  he  answers, 
"My  father  chastised  you  with  whips,  but  I  with 
scorpions." 

All  this  is  so  inconsistent  with  the  accounts  in  the 
earlier  books  of  both  David  and  Solomon,  that  it  is 


6  SOLOMONIC   LITERATURE. 

charitable  to  believe  that  the  third  chronicler  had  never 
heard  the  ugly  stories  about  these  two  canonised  kings. 

In  the  First  Book  of  Kings,  Solomon  is  made  king 
against  the  rightful  heir,  by  an  ingenious  conspiracy 
between  a  wily  prophet,  Nathan,  and  a  wily  beauty, 
Bathsheba, — Solomon's  mother,  whom  David  had  ob- 
tained by  murdering  her  husband. 

It  may  be  remembered  here  that  David  had  by  Bath- 
sheba a  son  named  Nathan  (2  Sam.  v.  14;  i  Chron.  iii. 
5),  elder  brother  of  Solomon,  from  whom  Luke  traces 
the  genealogy  of  Joseph,  father  of  Jesus,  while  Mat- 
thew traces  it  from  Solomon.  It  appears  curious  that 
the  prophet  Nathan  should  have  intrigued  for  the  acces- 
sion of  the  younger  brother  rather  than  the  one  bearing 
his  own  name.  It  will  be  seen,  however,  by  reference 
to  2  Samuel  xii.  24,  that  Solomon  was  the  first  legiti- 
mate child  of  David  and  Bathsheba,  the  son  of  their 
adultery  having  died.  John  Calvin  having  laid  it  down 
very  positively  that  "if  Jesus  was  not  descended  from 
Solomon,  he  was  not  the  Christ,"  some  theologians  have 
resorted  to  the  hypothesis  that  Nathan  married  an 
ancestress  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  and  that  Luke  gives  her 
descent,  not  that  of  Joseph ;  but  apart  from  the  fact 
that  Luke  (iii.  23)  begins  with  Joseph,  it  is  difficult  to 
see  how  the  requirement  of  Calvin,  that  Solomon  should 
be  the  ancestor  of  Jesus,  is  met  by  his  mother's  descent 
from  Solomon's  brother.  It  is  clear,  however,  from 
2  Sam.  xii.  24,  25,  that  this  elder  brother  of  Solomon, 
Nathan,  is  a  myth.  Otherwise  he,  and  not  Solomon,  was 
the  lawful  heir  to  the  throne  (legitimacy  being  confined 
to  the  sons  of  David  born  in  Jerusalem),  and  Jesus 
would  not  have  been  "born  King  of  the  Jews"  (Matt, 
i.  2),  nor  fulfilled  the  Messianic  conditions.     It  is  even 


SOLOMON.  7 

I)f)ssi1)le  that  Luke  wished  to  escape  the  implication  of 
illegitimacy  by  tracing  the  descent  of  Jesus  from  S(;lo- 
mon's  elder  brother.  But  the  writer  of  i  Kings  i.  had 
no  knowledge  of  the  Christian  discovery  that,  in  the 
order  of  legal  succession  to  the  throne,  the  sons  of 
David  born  before  he  reigned  in  Jerusalem  were 
excluded.  Adonijah's  legal  right  of  succession  was 
not  questioned  by  David  ( i  Kings  i,  6.) 

When  David  was  in  his  dotage  and  near  his  end  this 
eldest  son  (by  Haggith),  Adonijah,  began  to  consult 
leading  men  about  his  accession,  but  unfortunately  for 
himself,  did  not  summon  Nathan.  This  slighted  "pro- 
phet" proposed  to  Bathsheba  that  she  should  go  to 
David  and  tell  him  the  falsehood  that  he  (David)  had 
once  sworn  before  Jahveh  that  her  son  Solomon  should 
reign  ;  "and  while  you  are  talking,"  says  Nathan,  "I  will 
enter  and  fulfil"  (that  was  his  significant  word)  "your 
declaration."  The  royal  dotard  could  not  gainsay  two 
seemingly  independent  witnesses,  and  helplessly  kept 
the  alleged  oath.  David  announced  this  oath  as  his 
reason, — apparently  the  only  one, — for  appointing  Solo- 
mon. The  prince  may  be  credited  with  being  too  young 
to  participate  in  this  scheme. 

Irregularity  of  succession  and  of  birth  in  princes 
appeals  to  popular  superstition.  The  legal  heir,  regu- 
larly born,  seems  to  come  by  mere  human  arrangement, 
but  the  God-appointed  chieftain  is  expected  in  unex- 
pected ways  and  in  defiance  of  human  laws  and  even 
moralities.  David,  or  some  one  speaking  for  him,  said, 
"In  sin  did  my  mother  conceive  me,"  and  the  contempt 
in  which  he  was  held  by  his  father's  other  children,  and 
his  father's  keeping  him  out  of  sight  till  the  prophet 
demanded  him  ( i  Sam.  xvi.  1 1 ),  look  as  if  he,  also,  may 


8  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

have  been  illegitimate.  Solomon  may  have  been  tech- 
nically legitimate,  but  in  any  case  he  was  the  son  of 
an  immoral  marriage,  sealed  by  a  husband's  blood. 
The  populace  would  easily  see  the  divine  hand  in  the 
elevation  of  this  youth,  who  seems  to  have  been  himself 
impressed  with  the  like  superstition. 

Unfortunately,  Solomon  received  his  father's  last 
injunctions  as  divine  commands.  At  the  very  time 
when  David  is  pictured  by  the  Chronicler  in  such  a 
saintly  death-bed  scene,  parting  so  pathetically  with  his 
people,  and  giving  such  unctuous  and  virtuous  last 
counsels  to  Solomon,  he  is  shown  by  the  historian  of 
Kings  pouring  into  his  successor's  ear  the  most  treach- 
erous and  atrocious  directions  for  the  murder  of  certain 
persons;  among  others,  of  Shimei,  whose  life  he  had 
sworn  should  not  be  taken.  Shimei  had  once  called 
David  what  Jahveh  also  called  him,  a  man  of  blood,  but 
afterwards  asked  his  forgiveness.  Under  a  pretence 
of  forgiveness,  David  nursed  his  vengeance  through 
many  years,  and  Shimei  was  now  a  white-haired  man. 
David's  last  words  addressed  to  Solomon  were  these: 

"He  (Shimei)  came  down  to  meet  me  at  Jordan,  and  I 
sware  to  him  by  Jahveh,  saying,  'I  will  not  put  thee  to  death 
with  the  sword.'  Now  therefore  hold  him  not  guiltless,  for 
thou  art  a  wise  man,  and  wilt  know  what  thou  oughtest  to  do 
unto  him;  and  thou  shalt  bring  his  hoar  head  down  to  the 
grave  in  blood." 

Such,  according  to  an  admiring  annalist,  were  the 
last  words  uttered  by  David  on  earth.  He  died  with 
a  lie  in  his  mouth  (for  he  had  sworn  to  Shimei,  plainly, 
"Thy  life  shall  not  be  taken"),  and  with  murder  (per- 
sonal and  vindictive)  in  his  heart.  The  book  opens 
with  a  record  that  they  had  tried  to  revive  the  aged  king 


SOLOMON.  9 

by  bringing  to  him  a  beautiful  damsel;  but  lust  was 
gone;  the  only  passion  that  survived  even  his  lust,  and 
could  give  one  more  glow  to  this  "man  of  blood,"  was 
vengeance.  Two  aged  men  were  named  by  him  for 
death  at  the  hands  of  Solomon,  who  could  not  disobey, 
this  being  the  last  act  of  the  forty  years  of  reign  of  King 
David.  His  dying  word  was  "blood."  One  would  be 
glad  to  believe  these  things  mythical,  but  they  are  con- 
tained in  a  record  which  says : 

"David  did  that  which  was  right  in  the  sight  of  Jahveh 
and  turned  not  aside  from  anything  that  he  commanded  him 
all  the  days  of  his  life,  save  only  in  the  matter  of  Uriah  the 
Hiuite." 

This  traditional  incident  of  getting  Uriah  slain  in 
order  to  appropriate  his  wife,  made  a  deep  impression 
on  the  historian  of  Samuel,  and  suspicious  pains  are 
taken  (2  Sam.  xii.)  to  prove  that  the  illegitimate  son  of 
David  and  Bathsheba  was  "struck  by  Jahveh"  for  his 
parents'  sin,  and  that  Solomon  was  born  only  after  the 
marriage.  Even  if  the  youth  was  legitimate,  the  adher- 
ents of  the  king's  eldest  son,  Adonijah,  would  not  fail 
to  recall  the  lust  and  murder  from  which  Solomon 
sprang,  though  the  populace  might  regard  these  as 
signs  of  Jahvch's  favor.  In  the  coronation  ode 
(Psalm  ii.)  the  young  king  is  represented  as  if  answer- 
ing the  Legitimists  who  spoke  of  his  birth  not  only 
from  an  adulteress,  but  one  with  a  foreign  name : 

"I  will  proclaim  the  decree  : 
The  Lord  said  unto  me,  'Thou  art  my  son ; 
This  day  have  I  begotten  thee.'  " 

(It  is  probable  that  the  name  Jahveh  was  inserted  in 
this  song  in  place  of  Elohim,  and   in  several  other 


lO  SOLOMONIC   LITERATURE. 

phrases  there  are  indications  that  the  original  has  been 
tampered  with.)     The  Hnes — 

"Kiss  the  son  lest  he  be  angry 
And  ye  perisli  straightway." 

and  others,  may  have  originated  the  legendary  par- 
ticulars of  plots  caused  by  Solomon's  accession, 
recorded  in  the  Book  of  Kings,  but  at  any  rate  the 
emphatic  claim  to  his  adoption  by  God  as  His  son,  by 
the  anointing  received  at  coronation,  suggests  some 
trouble  arising  out  of  his  birth.  There  is  also  a  con- 
fidence and  enthusiasm  in  the  language  of  the  court 
laureate,  as  the  writer  of  Psalm  ii.  appears  to  have  been, 
which  conveys  an  impression  of  popular  sympathy. 

It  is  not  improbable  that  the  superstition  about  ille- 
gitimacy, as  under  some  conditions  a  sign  of  a  hero's 
heavenly  origin,  may  have  had  some  foundation  in  the 
facts  of  heredity.  In  times  wdien  love  or  even  passion 
had  little  connexion  with  any  marriage,  and  none  with 
royal  marriages,  the  offspring  of  an  amour  might  natur- 
ally manifest  more  force  of  character  than  the  legiti- 
mate, and  the  inherited  sensual  impulses,  often  dis- 
played in  noble  energies,  might  prove  of  enormous 
importance  in  breaking  down  an  old  oppression  con- 
tinued by  an  automatic  legitimacy  of  succession. 

In  Talmudic  books  (Mocd  Katon,  Vol.  9,  col.  2,  and 
Midrash  Rabbah,  ch.  15)  it  is  related  that  when  Solo- 
mon was  conveying  the  ark  into  the  temple,  the  doors 
shut  themselves  against  him  of  their  own  accord.  He 
recited  twenty-four  psalms,  but  they  opened  not.  In 
vain  he  cried,  "Lift  up  your  heads,  O  ye  gates!"  But 
when  he  prayed,  "O  Lord  God,  turn  not  Thy  face  from 
Thine  anointed;   remember  the  mercies  of  David  thy 


SOLOMON.  II 

servant"  (2  Chron.  vi.  42),  the  g^ates  flew  open.  "Then 
the  enemies  of  David  turned  black  in  the  face,  for  all 
knew  that  God  had  pardoned  David's  transgression  with 
Bathsheba."  This  legend  curiously  ignores  i  Chron. 
xxii.,  which  shows  that  Jahveh  had  prearrang'ed  Solo- 
mon's birth  and  name,  and  had  adopted  him  before 
birth.  It  is  one  of  many  rabbinical  intimations  that 
David,  Bathsheba,  Uriah,  and  Solomon,  had  become 
popular  divinities, — much  like  Vulcan,  Venus,  Mars, — 
and  as  such  relieved  from  moral  obligations.  Jewish 
theology  had  to  accommodate  itself  ethically  to  this 
popular  mythology,  and  did  so  by  a  theory  of  divine 
forgiveness ;  but  really  the  position  of  Hebrew,  as  well 
as  Christian,  orthodoxy  was  that  lustful  David  and 
Bathsheba  were  mere  puppets  in  the  divine  plan,  and 
their  actions  quite  consistent  with  their  being  souls  after 
Jahveh's  own  heart. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  JUDGMENT  OF  SOLOMON. 

It  may  occur  to  mythographers  that  I  treat  as  histor- 
ical narratives  and  names  that  cannot  be  taken  so  seri- 
ously ;  but  in  a  study  of  primitive  culture,  fables  become 
facts  and  evidences.  A  grand  harvest  awaits  that  mas- 
ter of  mythology  and  folklore  who  shall  bravely  explore 
the  legends  of  David  and  Solomon,  but  in  the  present 
essay  mythical  details  can  only  be  dealt  with  inci- 
dentally. Some  of  these  may  be  considered  at  the 
outset. 

It  is  said  in  i  Kings  i. : 

"Now  King  David  was  old  and  stricken  in  years ;  and  they 
covered  him  with  clothes,  but  he  gat  no  heat.  Wherefore  his 
servants  said  unto  him,  Let  there  be  sought  for  my  lord  the 
king  a  young  virgin :  and  let  her  stand  before  the  king,  and 
cherish  him ;  and  let  her  lie  in  thy  bosom,  that  my  lord  the 
king  may  get  heat.  So  they  sought  for  a  fair  damsel  through- 
out all  the  coasts  of  Israel,  and  found  Abishag  the  Shunammite, 
and  brought  her  to  the  king.  And  the  damsel  was  very  fair; 
and  she  cherished  the  king  and  ministered  to  him ;  but  the 
king  knew  her  not." 

That  this  story  is  characteristic  of  lustful  David  can- 
not blind  us  to  the  fact  of  its  improbability.  Whatever 
may  be  meant  by  "the  coasts  of  Israel,"  the  impression 
is  conveyed  of  a  long  journey,  and  it  is  hardly  credible 
that  so  much  time  should  be  taken  for  a  moribund 
monarch.     Many   interpretations   are  possible  of  the 


THE   JUDGMENT  OF  SOLOMON.  13 

name  Abishag,  but  it  is  usually  translated  "Father  (or 
source)  of  error."  However  this  may  be,  the  story 
bears  a  close  resemblance  to  the  search  for  a  wife  for 
Isaac.  When  Abraham  sent  out  this  commission  he 
also  "was  old  and  well  stricken  in  age,"  and  of  Rebekah 
it  is  said,  "The  damsel  was  very  fair  to  look  upon,  a 
virgin,  neither  had  any  man  known  her."  (Gen. 
xxiv.)  Rebekah  means  "ensnarer,"  and  Abishag 
"father  (source)  of  error";  and  both  women  cause 
trouble  between  two  brothers. 

There  is  an  Oriental  accent  about  both  of  these  sto- 
ries. In  ancient  Indian  literature  there  arc  several 
instances  of  servants  sent  out  to  search  the  world  for  a 
damsel  fair  and  wise  enough  to  wed  the  son  and  heir  of 
some  grand  personage.  Maya,  the  mother  of  Buddha, 
was  sought  for  in  the  same  way.  This  of  itself  is  not 
enough  to  prove  that  the  Biblical  narratives  in  question 
are  of  Oriental  origin,  but  there  is  a  Tibetan  tale  which 
contains  several  details  which  seem  to  bear  on  this  point. 
The  tale  is  that  of  Visakha,  and  it  is  accessible  to  Eng- 
lish readers  in  a  translation  by  Schiefncr  and  Ralston  of 
the  "Kah-Gyur."     (Triibner's  Oriental  Series.) 

Visakha  was  the  seventh  son  of  Mrgadhara,  prime 
minister  of  the  king  of  Kosala.  For  this  youth  a  bride 
was  sought  by  a  Brahman,  who  in  the  land  of  Champa 
found  a  beautiful  maiden  whose  name  was  also  Visakha. 
She  was,  with  other  girls,  entering  a  park,  where  they 
all  bathed  in  a  tank, — her  companions  taking  off  their 
clothes,  but  Msakha  lifting  her  dress  by  degrees  as  she 
entered  the  water.  I  besides  showing  decorum,  this 
maiden  conducted  herself  differently  from  the  others  in 
everything,  some  of  licr  actions  being  mysterious.  The 
Brahman,  having  contrived  to  meet  her  alone,  ques- 


14  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

tioned  her  concerning  these  pecuharities,  for  all  of 
which  she  gave  reasons  implying  exceptional  wisdom 
and  virtue.  On  his  return  the  Brahman  described  this 
maiden  to  the  prime  minister,  who  set  forth  and  asked 
her  hand  for  his  son,  and  she  was  brought  to  Kosala  on 
a  ship  with  great  pomp.  The  maiden  then  for  a  long 
time  gives  evidence  of  extraordinary  wisdom,  one 
example  being  of  special  importance  to  our  inquiry. 
She  determines  which  of  two  women  claiming  a  child 
is  the  real  mother.  The  king  and  his  ministers  being 
unable  to  settle  the  dispute,  Visakha  said : 

"Speak  to  the  tv/o  women  thus:  'As  we  do  not  know  to 
which  of  you  two  the  boy  belongs,  let  her  who  is  the  strongest 
take  the  boy.'  When  each  of  them  has  taken  hold  of  one  of 
the  boy's  hands,  and  he  begins  to  cry  out  on  account  of  the 
pain,  the  real  mother  will  let  go,  being  full  of  compassion  for 
him,  and  knowing  that  if  her  child  remains  alive  she  will  be 
able  to  see  it  again ;  but  the  other,  who  has  no  compassion  for 
him,  will  not  let  go.  Then  beat  her  with  a  switch,  and  she  will 
thereupon  confess  the  truth  of  the  whole  matter." 

In  comparing  this  with  the  famous  judgment  of 
Solomon  there  appear  some  reasons  for  believing  the 
Oriental  tale  to  be  the  earlier.  In  the  Biblical  tale 
there  is  evidently  a  missing  link.  Why  should  the  false 
mother,  who  had  so  desired  the  child,  consent  to  have  it 
cut  in  two  ?  What  motive  could  she  have  ?  But  in  the 
Tibetan  tale  one  of  the  women  is  the  wife,  the  other  the 
concubine,  of  a  householder.  The  wife  bore  him  no 
child,  and  was  jealous  of  the  concubine  on  account  of 
her  babe.  The  concubine,  feeling  certain  that  the  wife 
would  kill  the  child,  gave  it  to  her,  with  her  lord's 
approval ;  but  after  his  death  possession  of  the  house 
had  to  follow  motherhood  of  the  child.     If,  however, 


THE    JUDGMENT  OF  SOLOMON.  15 

the  child  were  dead,  the  false  claimant  would  be  mis- 
tress of  the  house.  Here,  then,  is  a  motive  wanting  in 
the  story  of  Solomon,  and  suggesting  that  the  latter  is 
not  the  original. 

In  the  ancient  "Mahosadha  Jataka"  the  false  claimant 
proves  to  be  a  Yakshini  (a  sort  of  siren  and  vampire) 
who  wishes  to  eat  the  child.  To  Buddha  himself  is 
here  ascribed  the  judgment,  which  is  much  the  same  as 
that  of  the  "wise  Champa  maiden,"  Visakha.  Here, 
also,  is  a  motive  for  assenting  to  the  child's  death  or 
injury  which  is  lacking  in  the  Biblical  story. 

Here,  then,  we  find  in  ancient  Indian  literature  a  tale 
which  may  be  fairly  regarded  as  the  origin  of  the 
"Judgment  of  Solomon."  And  it  belongs  to  a  large 
number  of  Oriental  tales  in  which  the  situations  and 
accents  of  the  Biblical  narratives  concerning  David  and 
Solomon  often  occur.  There  is  a  cave-born  youth, 
Asuga,  son  of  a  Brahman  and  a  bird-fairy,  with  a 
magic  lute  which  accompanies  his  verses,  and  who 
dallies  with  Brahmadetta's  wife.  A  king,  enamored 
of  a  beautiful  foreign  woman  beneath  him  in  rank, 
obtains  her  by  a  promise  that  her  son,  if  one  is  born, 
shall  succeed  him  on  the  throne,  to  the  exclusion  of  his 
existing  heir  by  his  wife  of  equal  birth  ;  but  he  permits 
arrangements  for  his  elder  son's  succession  to  go  on 
until  induced  by  a  threat  of  war  from  the  new  wife's 
father  and  country  to  fulfil  his  promise.  A  prime  min- 
ister, Mahaushadha,  travels,  in  disguise  of  a  Brahman, 
in  order  to  find  a  true  wife ;  he  meets  with  a  witty 
maiden  (\'isakha),  who  directs  him  to  her  village  by 
a  road  where  he  will  see  her  naked  at  a  bathing  tank, 
though  she  had  taken  another  road.  This  minister  was, 
like  David,  lowly  born ;   a  "deity"  revealed  him  to  the 


l6  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

king,  as  Jahveh  revealed  David  to  Samuel ;  he  was  a 
seventh  minister,  as  David  was  a  seventh  son,  and  Solo- 
mon also. 

Although  the  number  seven  was  sacred  among  the 
ancient  Hebrews,  it  does  not  appear  to  have  been  con- 
nected by  them  with  exceptional  wisdom  or  occult  pow- 
ers in  man  or  woman.  The  ideas  in  which  such  legends 
as  "The  Seven  Wise  Masters,"  "The  Seven  Sages," 
and  the  superstition  about  a  seventh  son's  second- 
sight,  originate,  are  traceable  to  ancient  Indo-Iranian 
theosophy.  It  may  be  useful  here  to  read  the  subjoined 
extract  from  Darmesteter's  introduction  to  the  "Vendi- 
dad."  Having  explained  that  the  religion  of  the  Per- 
sian Magi  is  derived  from  the  same  source  as  that  of 
the  Indian  Rishis,  that  is,  from  the  common  forefathers 
of  both  Iranian  and  Indian,  he  says  : 

"The  Indo-Iranian  Asura  (the  supreme  but  not  the  only  god) 
was  often  conceived  as  sevenfold :  by  the  play  of  certain 
mythical  formulae  and  the  strength  of  certain  mythical  num- 
bers, the  ancestors  of  the  Indo-Iranians  had  been  led  to  speak 
of  seven  worlds,  and  the  supreme  god  was  often  made  seven- 
fold, as  well  as  the  worlds  over  which  he  ruled.  The  names 
and  the  attributes  of  the  seven  gods  had  not  been  as  yet 
defined,  nor  could  they  be  then ;  after  the  separation  of  the 
two  religions,  these  gods,  named  Aditya,  'the  infinite  ones,' 
in  India,  were  by  and  by  identified  there  with  the  sun,  and 
their  number  was  afterward  raised  to  twelve,  to  correspond 
to  the  twelve  aspects  of  the  sun.  In  Persia,  the  seven  gods 
are  known  as  Amesha  Spentas,  'the  undying  and  well-doing 
one';  they  by  and  by,  according  to  the  new  spirit  that 
breathed  in  the  religion,  received  the  names  of  the  deified 
abstractions,  Vohu-mano  (good  thought),  Asha  Vahista 
(excellent  holiness),  Khshathra  Vairya  (perfect  sovereignty), 
Spenta  Armaiti  (divine  piety),  Haurvatat  and  Ameretaot 
(health  and  immortality).  The  first  of  them  all  was  and 
remained  Ahura  Mazda ;    but  whereas  formerly  he  had  been 


THE   JUDGMENT   OF  SOLOMON.  1 7 

only  the  first  of  them,  he  was  now  their  father.  'I  invoke  the 
glory  of  the  Aniesha  Spcntas,  who  all  seven  have  one  and  the 
same  thinking,  one  and  the  same  speaking,  one  and  the  same 
father  and  lord,  Ahura  Mazda.'  "     (Yast  xix.  16.)* 

In  Persian  religion  the  Seven  are  always  wise  and 
beneficent.  The  vast  folklore  derived  from  this  Parsi 
religion  included  the  Babylonian  belief  in  seven  power- 
ful spirits,  associated  with  the  Pleiades,  beneficent  at 
certain  seasons,  but  normally  malevolent :  they  all  move 
together,  taking  possession  of  human  beings,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  seven  demons  cast  out  of  Mary  Magdalene. 
In  Eg}'pt  the  seven  are  always  evil.  But  neither  of 
these  sevens  are  especially  clever.  In  Buddhist  legends 
they  are  not  so  carefully  classified,  the  seventh  son  or 
daughter  manifesting  exceptional  powers,  sometimes  of 
good,  sometimes  of  evil,  but  they  are  usually  referred 
to  for  this  wit  or  wisdom.  In  the  Davidian  and  Solo- 
monic legends  these  notions  are  found  as  if  merely 
adhering  to  some  importation,  and  without  any  percep- 
tion of  the  significance  of  the  number  seven.  David 
is  an  eighth  son  in  i  Sam.  xvi.  10-13,  ^"t  a  seventh  son 
in  I  Chron.  ii.  16.  Solomon  is  a  tenth  son  in  i  Chron. 
iii.  1-6,  but  the  seventh  legitimate  son  in  2  Sam.  xii. 
24-25.  The  word  SJieba  means  "the  seven,"  but  the 
early  scribes  appear  to  have  understood  is  as  shaba,  "he 
swears,"  as  in  Gen.  xxi.  30-31,  where  after  the  seven 
ewe  lambs  have  given  the  well  its  name,  Beersheba,  it  is 
ascribed  the  significance  of  an  oath.  Bathsheba  is 
commonly  translated  "Daughter  of  the  Oath,"  but  there 
can  be  little  doubt  that  the  name  means  "Daughter  of 
the  Seven,"  and  that  it  originated  in  the  astute  tricks 

*  Sacred  Books  of  the  East.  Edited  by  F.  Max  Miiller.  Vol.  IV.  The 
Zend-Avesta.  Fart  I.  The  Vendidad.  Translated  by  James  Darniesteter. 
P.  lix.,  et  seq. 


1 8  SOLOMONIC   LITERATURE. 

by  which  that  fair  foreigner  made  herself  queen- 
mother  and  her  son  king,  above  the  lawful  heir,  whom 
she  was  instrumental  (perhaps  purposely)  in  getting 
out  of  the  way  by  furthering  his  wishes. 

Moral  obliquities  are  little  considered  in  these  fair 
favorites  of  translunary  powers.  Visakha,  in  one 
Buddhist  tale,  gets  herself  chosen  by  the  Brahman  as 
bride  of  a  great  man  by  her  care  to  veil  her  charms  at 
the  bath ;  in  another  tale  she  attracts  a  prime  minister 
in  disguise,  and  becomes  his  wife,  partly  by  laying  aside 
all  of  her  clothing  at  a  bathing  tank  where  she  knows  he 
will  see  her.  Bathsheba's  fame  is  similarly  various. 
Her  nudity  and  ready  adultery  with  the  king  did  not 
prevent  her  from  passing  into  Talmudic  tradition  as 
"blessed  among  women,"  and  to  her  w^as  even  ascribed 
the  beautiful  chapter  of  Proverbs  (xxxi.)  in  praise  of 
the  virtuous  wife !  In  the  "Wisdom  of  Solomon"  she 
is  described  as  the  "handmaiden"  of  the  Lord  in  antici- 
pation of  the  Christian  ideal  of  immaculate  womanhood. 

A  similar  development  might  no  doubt  be  traced  in 
the  beautiful  story  of  Visakha  of  Shravasti,  the  most 
famous  of  the  female  lay-disciples  of  Buddha.  The 
queries  put  to  her  by  Buddha  and  her  explanations  of 
her  petitions,  which  had  appeared  enigmatic,  are  related 
in  Carus's  Gospel  of  Buddha,  and  in  form  correspond 
with  the  very  different  questions  and  solutions  that 
passed  between  the  Brahman  and  the  Tibetan  Visakha, 
already  mentioned.  The  name  Visakha,  from  a  Sans- 
krit root,  meaning  to  divide,  came  to  mean  selection 
and  intelligence,  of  all  kinds,  but  in  the  matron  of 
Shravasti  wit  becomes  the  genius  of  charity,  and  clever- 
ness expands  to  enlightenment. 

The  Queen  of  Sheba, — "Queen  of  the  Seven," — is  a 


THE   JUDGMENT  OF  SOLOMON.  19 

sister  spirit  of  this  lay-disciple.  Whatever  truth  may 
underlie  the  legends  of  this  lady,  there  is  little  doubt  of 
her  legendary  relation  to  the  Wise  Women  of  Budd- 
hist parables, — to  Visakha  of  the  sevenfold  wisdom ; 
and  of  her  who  decided  between  the  rival  claimants  to 
the  same  child ;  to  Ambapali,  the  courtesan,  who  jour- 
neyed to  hear  Buddha's  wisdom  and  presented  to  him 
and  his  disciples  her  park  and  mansion ;  and  to  the 
Queen  of  Glory,  whose  story  belongs  "to  a  very  early 
period  in  the  history  of  Buddhism."  Such  is  the  opin- 
ion of  Mr.  Rhys  Davids,  whose  translation  of  the 
Malidsitdassana-Sutta,  containing  an  account  of  the 
queen's  visit  to  the  King  of  Glory,  in  his  Palace  of 
Justice,  attended  by  her  fourfold  army,  may  be  read 
in  Vol.  XL,  p.  276,  of  Sacred  Books  of  the  East. 

This  exaltation  of  human  knowledge  and  wisdom, 
travelling  to  find  it,  testing  it  with  riddles  and  questions, 
belongs  to  the  cult  of  the  Magus  and  the  Pundit. 

With  reference  to  the  seventh  son  Visakha  (all- 
potential)  and  his  all-wise  bride  Visakha,  a  notable 
parallelism  is  found  in  the  substantial  identity  of  ''Solo- 
mon" and  "the  Shunnamite,"  on  account  of  whom  he 
slew  his  brother  Adonijah.  Shunnamite  is  equivalent 
to  Shulamite,  substantially  the  same  as  Solomon  (peace- 
ful), but  here  probably  meaning  that  she  was  a  "Solo- 
moness,"  a  very  wise  woman.  That  such  was  her  repu- 
tation appears  by  the  "Song  of  Songs." 

An  equally  striking  comparison  may  be  made  between 
the  naming  of  Solomon  and  the  naming  of  Mahaus- 
hadha,  the  Tibetan  "Solomon"  already  mentioned  as 
having  married  a  wise  Visakha.  Among  the  many 
proofs  of  wisdom  given  by  this  village-born  youth  was 
the  discovery  of  the  real  husband  of  a  woman  claimed 


20  SOLOMONIC   LITERATURE. 

by  two  men.  One  of  the  men  being  much  the  weaker, 
there  could  be  no  such  trial  as  that  proposed  in  the 
child's  case  by  Visakha.  Mahaushadha  questioned  the 
two  men  as  to  what  they  had  last  eaten,  then  made 
them  vomit,  and  so  found  out  which  had  told  the  truth. 
Let  us  compare  this  Tibetan  minister's  birth  with  that 
of  Solomon : 

"When  the  boy  came  into  the  world  and  his  birth-feast  was 
celebrated,  the  name  of  Mahaushadha  (Great  Remedy)  was 
given  to  him  at  the  request  of  his  mother,  inasmuch  as  she,  who 
had  long  suffered  from  illness,  and  had  been  imable  to  obtain 
relief  from  the  time  of  the  boy's  conception,  had  been  cured 
by  him."     (Tib.  Tales,  p.  133.) 

"And  Jahveh  struck  the  child  that  Uriah's  wife  bare  unto 
David,  and  ....   on  the  seventh  day   [it  was  the  seventh 

son]  the  child  died And  David  comforted  Bathsheba 

his  wife,  and  went  in  unto  her,  and  lay  with  her ;  and  she 
bare  a  son,  and  she  called  his  name  Solomon.  And  Jahveh 
loved  him;  and  he  sent  by  the  hand  of  Nathan  the  prophet, 
and  he  called  his  name  Jedidiah  [Beloved  of  Jah]  for  Jahveh's 
sake."     (2  Sam.  xii.) 

In  the  Revised  Version  "she  called"  is  given  in  the 
margin  as  "another  reading,"  but  that  it  is  the  right 
reading  appears  by  the  context :  it  was  she  that  was 
"comforted,"  and  in  her  babe  she  found  "rest" — which 
"Solomon"  strictly  means.  Among  the  Hebrews  the 
naming  of  a  child  was  an  act  of  authority,  and  it  is 
difficult  to  believe  that  in  any  purely  Hebrew  narrative 
a  woman  would  be  described  as  setting  aside  the  name 
given  by  Jahveh  himself.  But  the  high  position  of 
woman  in  the  Iranian  and  the  Buddhist  religions  is 
well  known. 

In  comparative  studies  the  questions  to  be  deter- 
mined concerning  parallel  incidents  are — whether  they 


THE    JUDGMENT  OF  SOLOMON.  2i 

are  trivial  coincidences ;  wlielhcr  they  arc  not  based 
in  such  universal  beliefs  or  simple  facts  that  they  may 
have  been  of  independent  origin ;  whether  the  historic 
conditions  of  time  and  place  admit  of  any  supposed 
borrowing;  if  borrowing  occurred,  which  is  the  origi- 
nal? With  regard  to  the  above  parallelisms  I  sub- 
mit that  one  of  them,  at  least, — the  Judgment  of  Solo- 
mon,— is  neither  trivial  nor  based  in  simple  facts,  and 
could  not  have  originated  independently  of  the  Indian 
tale;  that  the  others,  though  each,  if  it  stood  alone, 
might  be  a  mere  coincidence,  are  too  numerous  to  be 
so  explained ;  that  the  time  and  conditions  which  ren- 
dered it  possible  that  the  names  of  the  apes  and  pea- 
cocks (i  Kings  X.  22)  imported  by  Solomon  should  be 
Indian  proves  the  possibility  of  importations  of  tales 
from  the  same  country.  (See  Rhys  David's  Buddhist 
Birth  Stories,  p.  xlvii.) 

The  question  remaining  to  be  determined — which 
region  was  the  borrower — cannot  be  settled,  in  the  pres- 
ent cases,  by  the  relative  antiquity  of  the  books  in  which 
they  are  found ;  not  only  are  the  ages  of  all  the  books, 
Hebrew  and  Oriental,  doubtful,  but  they  are  all  largely 
made  up  of  narratives  long  anterior  to  their  compila- 
tion. The  safest  method,  therefore,  must  be  study  of 
the  intrinsic  character  of  each  narrative  with  a  view  to 
discovering  the  country  to  whose  intellectual  and  social 
fauna  and  flora,  so  to  say,  it  is  most  related,  and  which 
of  the  stories  bears  least  of  the  faults  incidental  to 
translation.  I  have  applied  this  touchstone  to  the 
above  examples,  and  believe  that  the  Oriental  stories 
are  the  originals.  The  Judgment  of  Solomon  appears 
to  me  to  have  lost  an  essential  link,  a  motif,  which  it 
retains  in  Buddhist  versions.     And  I  do  not  believe  that 


22  SOLOMONIC    LITERATURE. 

any  Hebrew  Bathsheba  could  have  set  aside  a  name 
given  her  child  by  a  prophet,  in  the  name  of  Jahveh,  in 
order  to  celebrate  by  another  name  the  "rest"  she  found 
from  her  sorrows. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  borrowings  by  other  coun- 
tries from  the  legend  of  Solomon  appear  much  more 
numerous.  In  some  cases,  as  the  legend  of  Jemshid, 
there  appear  to  have  been  exchanges  between  the  two 
great  sages,  but  the  Solomonic  traditions  seem  pre- 
ponderant in  Vikramadatsya,  the  demon-commanding 
hero  of  India.  Solomon  became  a  proverb  of  wisdom 
and  liberality  in  Abyssinia,  Arabia,  and  Persia.  Ideal 
Sulaimans  and  Solimas  abound.  Solomon  has  influ- 
enced the  legends  of  many  heroes,  such  as  Haroun- 
Alraschid  and  Charlemagne,  and  I  will  even  venture 
a  suspicion  that  the  fame,  and  perhaps  the  name,  of 
Solon  have  been  influenced  by  the  legend  of  Solomon. 
Lexicographers  give  no  account  of  Solon's  name ;  he 
is  assigned  to  a  conjectural  period  before  written  Greek 
existed ;  his  interviews  with  Croesus,  given  in  Herodo- 
tus, are  hopelessly  unhistorical,  and  his  moralisings  to 
the  rich  man  recall  the  book  of  Proverbs.  The  Solon 
of  Plato's  Critias  is  already  a  mythological  voyager,  a 
Sindebad-Solomon,  and  his  romance  of  the  lost  Atlan- 
tis is  like  an  idealised  rumour  of  the  Wise  Man's  King- 
dom. Solon's  "history"  was  developed  by  Plutarch, 
seven  centuries  after  the  era  assigned  to  the  sage,  out  of 
poetical  fragments  ascribed  to  him,  and  he  is  rep- 
resented as  a  great  trader  and  traveller  in  the  regions 
associated  with  Solomon.  It  is  doubtful  whether  this 
chief  of  the  Seven  Sages,  whose  Solomonic  motto  was 
"Know  Thyself"  (cf.  Prov.  xiv.  8),  could  he  reappear, 


The  judgment  of  solomon.  23 

would  know  himself  as  historically  costumed  by  writers 
in  our  era,  from  Plutarch  to  Grote. 

At  any  rate  there  is  little  doubt  of  a  reference  to  the 
Seven  Spentas  or  to  the  Seven  Sages  in  Proverbs  ix.  i : 

"Wisdom  hath  builded  her  house, 
She  hath  hewn  out  her  seven  pillars." 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE    WIVES    OF    SOLOMON. 

According  to  the  first  book  of  Kings,  Solomon's  half- 
brother,  Adonijah,  after  the  defeat  of  an  alleged  (per- 
haps mythical)  effort  to  recover  the  throne  of  which 
he  had  been  defrauded,  submitted  himself  to  Solomon. 
He  had  become  enamored  of  the  virgin  who  had  been 
brought  to  the  aged  King  David  to  try  to  revive  some 
vitality  in  him ;  and  he  came  to  Bathsheba  asking  her 
to  request  her  son  the  king  to  give  him  this  damsel  as 
his  wife.  Bathsheba  proffered  this  "small  petition" 
for  Adonijah,  but  Solomon  was  enraged,  and  ironically 
suggested  that  she  should  ask  the  kingdom  itself  for 
Adonijah,  whom  he  straightway  ordered  to  execu- 
tion. The  immediate  context  indicates  that  Solomon 
suspected  in  this  petition  a  plot  against  his  throne.  A 
royal  father's  harem  was  inherited  by  a  royal  son,  and 
its  possession  is  supposed  to  have  involved  certain 
rights  of  succession :  this  is  the  only  interpretation  I 
have  ever  heard  of  the  extreme  violence  of  Solomon. 
But  I  have  never  been  satisfied  with  this  explanation. 
Would  Adonijah  have  requested,  or  Bathsheba  asked 
as  a  "small"  thing,  a  favor  touching  the  king's  tenure? 

The  story  as  told  in  the  Book  of  Kings  appears  diplo- 
matic, and  several  details  suggest  that  in  some  earlier 
legend  the  strife  between  the  half-brothers  had  a  more 

24 


THE    WIVES    OF  SOLOMON.  25 

romantic  relation  to  "Abishag  the  Shunammite,"  who 
is  described  as  "very  fair." 

Abishag  is  interpreted  as  meaning  ''father  of  error," 
and  though  that  translation  is  of  doubtful  accuracy,  its 
persistence  indicates  the  place  occupied  by  her  in  early 
tradition.  According  to  Yalkiit  Reuhcni  the  soul  of 
Eve  transmigrated  into  her.  She.  caused  trouble  be- 
tween the  brothers,  whose  Jahvist  names,  Adonijah  and 
Jedidiah, — strength  of  Jah,  and  love  of  Jah, — seem  to 
have  been  at  some  time  related.  However  this  may  be, 
the  fair  Shunammite,  as  represented  in  the  Shulamite  of 
the  Song  of  Songs,  fills  pretty  closely  the  outlines  set 
forth  in  the  famous  epithalamium  (Psalm  xlv.)  which 
all  critics,  I  believe,  refer  to  Solomon's  marriage  with 
a  bride  brought  from  some  far  country.  I  quote  (with 
a  few  alterations  hereafter  discussed)  the  late  Pro- 
fessor Newman's  translation,  in  which  it  will  be  seen 
that  several  lines  are  applicable  to  the  Shunammite, 
whose  humble  position  is  alluded  to,  separated  from 
her  "people,"  and  her  "father's  house"  : 

"My  heart  boils  up  with  goodly  matter. 
I  ponder ;  and  my  verse  concerns  the  King. 
Let  my  tongue  be  a  ready  writer's  pen. 

"Fairer  art  thou  than  all  the  sons  of  men. 
Over  thy  lips  delightsomeness  is  poured : 
Therefore  hath  God  forever  blessed  thee. 

"Gird  at  thy  hip  thy  hero  sword, 
Thy  glory  and  thy  majesty: 
And  forth  victorious  ride  majestic. 
For  truth  and  meekness,  righteously ; 
And  let  thy  riglit  hand  teach  tlie  wondrous  deeds. 
Beneath  thy  feet  the  peoples  fall ; 
For  in  the  heart  of  the  king's  enemies 
Sharp  arc  thy  arrows. 


26  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

"Thy  throne,  O  God,  ever  and  always  stands ; 
A  righteous  sceptre  is  thy  royal  sceptre. 
Thou  lovest  right  and  hatest  evil ; 
Therefore,  O  God,  ihy  God  hath  anointed  thee 
With  oil  of  joy  above  thy  fellow-kings. 
Myrrh,  aloes,  cassia,  all  thy  raiment  is. 
From  ivory  palaces  the  viols  gladden  thee. 
King's  daughters  count  among  thy  favorites ; 
And  at  thy  right  hand  stands  the  Queen 
In  Gold  of  Ophir. 

"O  daughter,  hark!  behold  and  bend  thy  ear: 
Forget  thy  people  and  thy  father's  house. 
Win  thou  the  King  thy  beauty  to  desire ; 
He  is  thy  lord ;  do  homage  unto  him. 
So  Tyrus's  daughter  and  the  sons  of  wealth 
With  gifts  shall  court  thee. 

"Right  glorious  is  the  royal  damsel ; 
Wrought  of  gold  is  her  apparel. 
In  broidered  tissues  to  the  King  she  is  led : 
Her  maiden-friends,  behind,  are  brought  to  thee. 
They  come  with  joy  and  gladness, 
They  enter  the  royal  palace. 

"Thy  fathers  by  their  sons  shall  be  replaced ; 
As  princes  o'er  the  land  shalt  thou  exalt  them. 
So  will  I  publish  to  all  times  thy  name ; 
So  shall  the  nations  praise  thee,  now  and  always." 

In  this  epithalamitim  the  name  of  Jahveh  does  not 
occur,  and  Solomon  himself  is  twice  addressed  as  God 
(Elohim).  This  lack  of  anticipation  was  avenged  by 
Jahvism  when  it  arrived ;  the  Song  was  put  among  the 
Psalms  and  transmitted  to  British  Jahvism,  which  has 
headed  it:  "The  majesty  and  grace  of  Christ's  king- 
dom. The  duty  of  the  Church  and  the  benefits  thereof." 
Such  is  the  chapter-heading  to  a  song  of  bridesmaids, — 


THE    WIVES    OF  SOLOMON.  ^^ 

dcscril)C(I  in  the  original  as  "a  song  of  loves"  and  "set 
to  lilies"  (a  tune  of  the  time). 

There  are  no  indications  in  the  Solomon  legend,  apart 
from  some  mistranslations,  until  the  time  of  Ecclesias- 
ticus  (B.  C.  i8o),  that  Solomon  was  a  sensualist,  or 
that  there  were  any  moral  objections  to  the  extent  of 
his  harem,  which  indeed  is  expanded  by  his  historians 
with  evident  pride. 

As  to  this,  our  own  monogamic  ideas  are  quite  in- 
applicable to  a  period  when  personal  affection  had  noth- 
ing to  do  with  marriage,  when  women  had  no  means  of 
independent  subsistence,  and  the  size  of  a  man's  harem 
was  the  measure  of  his  benevolence.  Probably  there 
was  then  no  place  more  enviable  for  a  woman  than 
Solomon's  seraglio. 

The  sin  was  not  in  the  size  of  the  seraglio  but  in  its 
foreign  and  idolatrous  wives.  (Here  our  translators 
again  get  in  an  innuendo  against  Solomon  by  turning 
"foreign"  into  "strange  women.")  Before  a  religious 
notion  can  get  itself  fixed  as  law  it  is  apt  to  be  enforced 
by  an  extra  amount  of  odium.  Solomon's  mother  had 
married  a  Hittite,  and  presumably  he  would  have  im- 
bibed liberal  ideas  on  such  subjects.  The  round  num- 
ber of  a  thousand  ladies  in  his  harem  is  unhistorical, 
but  that  the  chief  princesses  were  of  Gentile  origin  and 
religion  is  clear.  The  second  writer  in  the  first  Book 
of  Kings  begins  (xi.)  with  this  gravamen: 

"Now  King  Solomon  loved  many  foreign  women  besides 
the  daughter  of  Pharaoh, — Moabite,  Ammonite,  Edomite, 
Zidonian,  and  Hittite  women,  nations  concerning  which 
Jahveh  said  to  the  children  of  Israel,  Ye  shall  not  go  among 
them,  neither  shall  they  come  among  you :  for  surely  they 
will  turn  away  your  heart  after  their  gods :  Solomon  clave  to 
these  in  love." 


28  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

The  wisest  of  men  could  hardly  attend  to  rules  which 
an  unconceived  Jahveh  would  lay  down  for  an  unborn 
nation  centuries  later.  We  must,  however,  as  we  are 
not  on  racial  problems,  consent  to  a  few  anachronisms 
in  names  if  we  are  to  discover  any  credible  traditions 
in  the  Biblical  books  relating  to  Solomon.  As  Mr. 
Flinders  Petrie  has  discovered  something  like  the  word 
"Israel"  in  ancient  Egypt,  it  may  be  as  well  to  use  that 
word  tentatively  for  the  tribe  we  are  considering.  No 
Israelite,  then,  is  mentioned  among  Solomon's  wives, 
and  one  can  hardly  imagine  such  a  man  finding  a  bride 
among  devotees  of  an  altar  of  unhewn  stones  piled  in 
a  tent. 

As  our  cosmopolitan  prince  had  to  send  abroad  for 
workmen  of  skill,  he  may  also  have  had  to  seek  abroad 
for  ladies  accomplished  enough  to  be  his  princesses. 
That,  however,  does  not  explain  the  number  and  variety 
of  the  countries  from  which  the  wives  seem  to  have 
come.  The  theory  of  many  scholars  that  this  Prince 
of  Peace  substituted  alliances  by  marriage  for  military 
conquests  is  confirmed  in  at  least  one  instance.  The 
mother  of  his  only  son,  Rehoboam,  was  Naamah  the 
Ammonitess  (i  Kings  xiv.  31),  and  the  Septuagint 
preserves  an  addition  to  this  verse  that  she  was  the 
"daughter  of  Ana,  the  son  of  Nahash," — a  king 
(Hanum)  with  whom  David  had  waged  furious  war. 
The  reference  in  the  epithalamium  (Psalms  xlv.)  to 
"Tyrus's  daughter,"  in  connexion  with  i  Kings  v.  12, 
"there  was  peace  between  Hiram  and  Solomon,"  sug- 
gests that  there  also  marriage  was  the  peacemaker. 

The  phrase  in  i  Kings  iii.  i,  "Solomon  made  affinity 
with  Pharaoh  and  took  Pharaoh's  daughter"  suggests, 
though  less  clearly,  that  some  feud  may  have  been 


THE    WIVES    OF  SOLOMON.  29 

settled  in  that  case  also.  That  Solomon  should  have 
espoused  as  his  first  and  pre-eminent  queen  the  daugh- 
ter of  a  Pharaoh  is  very  picturesque  if  set  beside  the 
legend  of  the  "Land  of  Bondage,"  but  the  narrative 
could  hardly  have  been  given  without  any  allusion  to 
bygones  had  the  story  in  Exodus  been  known.  Yet  the 
words  "made  affinity"  may  refer  to  a  racial  feud  in  that 
direction.  This  princess  brought  as  her  dowry  the 
important  frontier  city  of  Gezer,  and  her  palace  appears 
to  have  been  the  first  fine  edifice  erected  in  Jerusalem. 
The  commercial  regime  established  by  Solomon 
could  hardly  have  been  possible  but  for  his  inter- 
marriages. Perhaps  if  the  Christian  ban  had  not  been 
fixed  against  polygamy,  and  European  princes  had  been 
permitted  to  marry  in  several  countries,  there  might 
have  been  fewer  wars,  as  well  as  fewer  illicit  con- 
nexions. The  intermarriages  of  the  large  English 
royal  family  with  most  of  the  reigning  houses  of 
Europe,  have  been  for  many  years  a  security  of  peace, 
and  it  is  not  improbable  that  our  industrial  and  demo- 
cratic age,  wherein  the  working  man's  welfare  depends 
on  peace,  may  find  in  the  undemocratic  institution  of 
royalty  a  certain  utility  in  its  power  to  be  prolific  in 
such  ties  of  peace. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

SOLOMON'S    IDOLATRY. 

Bathsheba's  function  at  Solomon's  marriage  is  cele- 
brated in  the  Song  of  Songs : 

"Go  forth,  O  ye  daughters  of  Zion,  and  behold  King  Solomon, 
With  the  crown  wherewith  his  mother  crowned  him  in  the 
day  of  his  espousals." 

Bathsheba,  as  we  have  seen,  was  said  to  have  written 
Proverbs  xxxi.  as  an  admonition  or  reproof  to  her  son 
on  his  betrothal  with  the  daughter  of  Pharaoh.  The 
words  of  David,  "Send  me  Uriah  the  Hittite"  (2  Sam. 
xi.  6),  and  the  emphasis  laid  on  Uriah's  being  a  Hittite 
(a  race  with  which  intermarriage  was  prohibited,  Deut. 
vii.  1-5)  might  have  been  meant  as  some  legal  excuse 
for  David's  conduct.  He  rescued  Bathsheba,  Hebra- 
ised  (i  Chr.  iii.  5),  from  unlawful  wedlock,  it  might 
be  said,  and  her  exaltation  in  Talmudic  tradition  may 
have  been  meant  to  guard  the  purity  of  David's  lineage. 
But  the  ascription  to  Bathsheba  of  especial  opposition 
to  her  son's  marriage  with  the  daughter  of  Pharaoh 
indicates  that  the  gravamen  in  Solomon's  posthumous 
ofifence  lay  less  in  his  intermarriage  with  foreigners 
than  in  building  for  them  shrines  of  their  several 
deities, — Istar,  Chemosh,  Milcom,  and  the  rest. 
Against  Pharaoh's  daughter  the  Talmud  manifests  a 
special  animus :  she  is  said  to  have  introduced  to  Solo- 

30 


SOLOMON'S   IDOLATRT.  31 

nion  a  thousand  musical  instrunicnls,  and  taught  him 
chants  to  the  various  idols.     (Shabbath,  56,  col.  2.) 

There  is  a  bit  of  Solomonic  folklore  according  to 
which  the  Devil  tempted  him  with  a  taunt  that  he  would 
be  but  an  ordinary  person  but  for  his  magic  ring,  in 
which  lay  all  his  wisdom.  Solomon  being  piqued  into 
a  denial,  was  challenged  to  remove  his  ring,  but  no 
sooner  had  he  done  so  than  the  Devil  seized  it,  and, 
having  by  its  might  metamorphosed  the  king  beyond 
recognition,  himself  assumed  the  appearance  of  Solo- 
mon and  for  some  time  resided  in  the  royal  seraglio. 
The  more  familiar  legend  is  that  Solomon  was  cajoled 
into  parting  with  his  signet  ring  by  a  promise  of  the 
demon  to  reveal  to  him  the  secret  of  demonic  superi- 
ority over  man  in  power.  Having  transformed  Solo- 
mon and  transported  him  four  hundred  miles  away,  the 
demon  (Asmodcus)  threw  the  ring  into  the  sea.  Solo- 
mon, after  long  vagrancy,  became  the  cook  of  the  king 
of  Amnion  (Ano  Hanun),  with  whose  daughter, 
Naamah,  he  eloped.*  One  day  in  dressing  a  fish  for 
dinner  Naamah  found  in  it  the  signet  ring  which 
Asmodeus  had  thrown  into  the  sea,  and  Solomon  thus 
recovered  his  palace  and  harem  from  the  demon. 

The  connexion  of  this  fish-and-ring  legend, — known 
in  several  versions,  from  the  Ring  of  Polycrates  (Hero- 
dotus HI.)  to  the  heraldic  legend  of  Glasgow, — with 
the  Solomonic  demonology,  looks  as  if  it  may  once  have 
been  part  of  a  theory  that  the  idolatrous  shrines  were 
l)uilt  for  the  princesses  while  the  Devil  was  personating 
their  lord.     In  truth,  however,  all  of  these  animadver- 

•  "Amnion"  probably  developed  the  name  "Aniina,"  given  in  the  Tal- 
mud as  the  n;iii!e  of  a  favorite  concubine  of  Solomon,  to  whom,  while  he  was 
bathinjr,  he  entrusted  his  sipnet  rinp,  and  from  whom  the  Devil,  Sakhar, 
obtained  it  by  appearing  to  her  in  the  shape  of  Solomon.  This  is  the  version 
referred  to  iii  the  Koran,  chapter  xxxviii.     (Sale.) 


32  SOLOMONIC   LITERATURE. 

sions  belong  to  a  comparatively  late  period.  Many 
struggles  had  to  precede  even  the  recognition  of  the 
idolatrous  character  of  the  shrines,  and  to  the  last  the 
Jews  were  generally  proud  of  the  "graven  images"  in 
their  temple, — including  brazen  reproductions  of  the 
terrible  Golden  Calf.  At  the  same  time  there  were  no 
doubt  some  old  priests  and  soothsayers  to  whom  these 
new-fangled  things  were  injurious  and  odious,  and 
superstitious  people  enough  to  cling  to  their  ancient 
unhewn  altar  rather  than  to  the  brilliant  cherubim,  just 
as  in  Catholic  countries  the  devotees  cannot  be  drawn 
from  their  age-blackened  Madonnas  and  time-stained 
crucifixes  by  the  most  attractive  works  of  modern  art. 
Although  there  is  no  evidence  that  the  God  of  Israel 
was  known  under  the  name  of  either  Jah  or  Jahveh  in 
Solomon's  time,  there  is  little  doubt  that  the  rudi- 
mentary forces  of  Jahvism  were  felt  in  the  Solomonic 
age.  The  furious  prophetic  denunciations  of  the  wise 
and  learned  which  echoed  on  through  the  centuries, 
and  made  the  burden  of  St.  Paul,  indicate  that  there 
was  from  the  first  much  superstition  among  the  peasant- 
ry, which  might  easily  in  times  of  distress  be  fanned 
into  fanaticism.  The  special  denunciation  of  Solomon 
by  Jahveh,  and  his  suppression  during  the  prophetic 
age,  could  hardly  have  been  possible  but  for  some 
extreme  defiance  on  his  part  of  the  primitive  priesthood 
and  the  soothsayers.  The  temple  was  dedicated  by  the 
king  himself  without  the  help  of  any  priest,  and  the 
monopoly  of  the  prophet  was  taken  away  by  the  estab- 
lishment of  an  oracle  in  the  temple.  And  the  worst  was 
that  these  things  indicated  a  genuine  liberation  of  the 
king,  intellectually,  from  the  superstitions  out  of  which 
Jahvism  grew.     This  was  especially  proved  by  his  dis- 


SOLOMON'S   IDOLATRT.  33 

regard  of  the  sanctuary  claimed  by  the  murderer  Joab, 
who  had  laid  hold  of  the  horns  of  the  altar.  The  altar 
was  the  precinct  of  deity,  and  beyond  the  jurisdiction  of 
civil  or  military  authority ;  yet  when  the  "man  of  blood" 
refused  to  leave  the  altar  our  royal  forerunner  of  Eras- 
tus  compelled  the  reluctant  executioner  to  slay  him  at 
the  altar, — even  the  sacred  altar  of  unhewn  stone.  As 
no  thunderlK)lt  fell  from  heaven  on  the  king  for  this 
sacrilege,  the  act  could  not  fail  to  be  a  thunderbolt  from 
earth  striking  the  phantasmal  heaven  of  the  priest. 
The  Judgment  Day  for  settlement  of  such  accounts  was 
not  yet  invented,  and  injuries  of  the  gods  were  left  to 
the  vengeance  of  their  priests  and  prophets. 

There  is  an  unconscious  humour  in  the  solemn  read- 
ing by  English  clergymen  of  Jahvist  rebukes  of  Solo- 
mon for  his  tolerance  towards  idolatry,  at  a  time  when 
the  Queen  of  England  and  Empress  of  India  is  protect- 
ing temples  and  idols  throughout  her  realm,  and  has  just 
rebuilt  the  ancient  temple  of  Buddha  at  Gaya ;  while  the 
sacred  laws  of  Brahman,  Buddhist,  Parsee,  Moslem, 
are  used  in  English  courts  of  justice.  If  any  modern 
Josiah  should  insult  a  shrine  of  Vishnu,  or  of  any 
Hindu  deity,  he  would  have  to  study  his  exemplar 
inside  a  British  prison. 


CHAPTER    V. 

SOLOMON   AND    THE    SATANS. 

When  Solomon  ascended  the  throne,  Jerusalem  must 
have  been  a  wretched  place,  without  any  art  or  archi- 
tecture, with  a  swarming  mongrel  population,  mainly 
of  paupers.  The  holy  ark  was  kept  in  a  tent,  and  the 
altar  of  unhewn  stone  accurately  symbolised  the  rude 
condition  of  the  people,  among  whom  Solomon  could 
find  no  workmen  of  skill  enough  to  build  a  temple.  It 
is  not  easy  to  forgive  him  for  compelling  a  good  many 
of  them  into  the  public  works ;  but  it  was  probably  no 
more  than  a  national  conscription  of  the  unemployed 
paupers  in  Jerusalem,  chiefly  on  fortifications  for  their 
own  defence.  There  was  apparently  no  slave-mart, 
and  it  seems  rather  better  to  conscript  people  for  public 
industries  than,  in  our  modern  way,  for  cutting  their 
neighbors'  throats.  Most  of  them  were  the  remnants 
of  tribes  that  once  occupied  the  region,  much  despised 
by  the  Israelites,  and  probably  they  looked  on  Solo- 
mon's plan  of  building  Jerusalem  into  a  city  of  mag- 
nificence, giving  everybody  employment  and  support,  as 
a  grand  socialistic  movement.  An  Ephraimite,  Jero- 
boam, who  tried  to  get  up  a  revolt  in  Jerusalem  does 
not  seem  to  have  found  any  adherents.  The  only  peo- 
ple who  complained  of  any  yoke — and  their  complaint 
is  only  heard  of  after  some  centuries — were  the  priest- 
ridden  and  prophet-ridden  Israelites  who  had  become 

34 


SOLOMON  AND    THE  S A  TANS.  35 

fanatically  excited  about  the  strange  shrines  built  for 
the  king-'s  foreign  wives,  and  the  splendid  carvings  and 
forms  in  the  temple  itself.  Probably  the  first  two 
commandments  in  the  decalogue  were  put  there  with 
special  reference  to  some  Solomonic  cult  with  an  aes- 
thetic taste  for  graven  images  and  foreign  shrines. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  Solomon,  by  his  patron- 
age of  these  foreign  religions,  detached  them  from  the 
cruel  rites  traditionally  associated  with  them.  Among 
all  the  censures  pronounced  against  him  none  attributes 
to  him  any  human  sacrifices,  though'  such  are  ascribed 
to  David  and  Samuel,  (i  Sam.  xv.  33,  2  Sam.  xxi. 
9.)  The  earliest  rebukes  of  sacrifice  in  the  Bible  are 
those  attributed  to  Solomon.  "To  do  justice  and  judg- 
ment is  more  acceptable  to  the  Lord  than  sacrifice" 
(Prov.  xxi.  3).  "By  mercy  and  truth  iniquity  is 
atoned  for"  (Prov.  xvi.  6).  "Mercy  and  truth  pre- 
serve the  king;  he  upholdeth  his  throne  by  mercy" 
(Prov.  XX.  28).  "Deliver  them  that  are  carried  away 
to  death :  those  that  are  ready  to  be  slain  forbear  not 
thou  to  save"  (Prov.  xxiv.  11).  "Love  covereth  all 
transgressions"  (Prov.  x.  12). 

Solomon  may  not  indeed  have  written  these  and  the 
many  similar  maxims  ascribed  to  him,  but  they  are 
among  the  most  ancient  sentences  in  the  Bible,  and  they 
would  not  have  been  attributed  to  any  man  who  had  not 
left  among  the  people  a  tradition  of  humanity  and 
benevolence.  Had  the  royal  "idolator"  or  his  wives 
stained  their  shrines  with  human  blood  the  prophets 
would  have  been  eager  to  declare  it.  Two  acts  of 
cruelty  are  ascribed  to  Solomon's  youth,  in  the  book  of 
Kings:  one  of  these,  the  execution  of  Shimei,  carried 
out  his  father's  order,  but  only  after  Shimei  had  been 


36  SOLOMOyiC   LITERATURE. 

given  fair  warning  with  means  of  escape ;  while  the 
other,  the  execution  of  Adonijah  (Solomon's  brother), 
if  true,  is  too  much  wrapped  up  in  obscurity  to  enable 
us  to  judge  its  motives ;  but  it  cannot  be  regarded  as 
historical. 

The  second  historiographer  of  Kings,  setting  out  to 
record  Jahveh's  anger  about  Solomon's  foreign  wives 
and  shrines  (i  Kings  xi)  says,  with  unconscious 
humour,  that  Jahveh  raised  Satan  against  him, — two 
Satans.  One  of  these  was  Hadad,  an  Edomite,  the 
other  Rezon,  a  Syrian.  The  writer  says  that  this  was 
when  Solomon  was  old,  his  wives  having  then  turned 
away  his  heart  after  other  gods.  Fortunately,  how- 
ever, this  writer  has  embodied  in  his  record  some  items, 
evidently  borrowed,  which  contradict  his  Jahvistic 
legend.  One  of  these  tells  us  that  Hadad  had  been 
carried  away  from  Edom  to  Egypt,  when  David  and  his 
Captain  Joab  massacred  all  the  males  in  Edom ;  that  he 
there  married  the  sister  of  Pharaoh;  and  that  he  re- 
turned to  his  own  country  on  hearing  of  the  death  of 
David  and  Joab.  When  this  occurred,  Solomon,  so 
far  from  being  old,  was  about  eighteen.  The  Septua- 
gint  (Vatican  MS.)  says  that  Hadad  "reigned  in  the 
land  of  Edom."  We  may  conclude  then  that  on  the 
return  of  this  heir  to  the  throne  Edom  declared  its 
independence,  nor  is  there  any  indication  that  Solomon 
tried  to  prevent  this.  Another  contradiction  of  this 
writer  is  a  note  inserted  about  Rezon  the  Syrian, — "He 
was  an  adversary  of  Israel  all  the  days  of  Solomon." 
Not,  therefore,  a  Satan  raised  up  by  Jahveh  against 
Solomon  when  in  old  age  he  had  turned  to  other  gods. 
Rezon  "reigned  over  Syria,"  and  there  is  no  indica- 
tion of  any  expedition  against  him  sent  out  by  Solomon. 


SOLOMON  AND    THE  SATAXS.  37 

Bishop  Colenso  {Pentateuch,  \'ol.  III.,  p.  loi),  in  re- 
fcrrinj^  to  these  points^  remarks  that  we  do  not  read  of 
a  single  warHke  expe(Htion  undertaken  hy  Solomon.* 
The  remark  (i  Kings  xi.)  about  the  Satans  set 
against  Solomon  is  more  applicable  to  the  Shiloh 
traitors,  Ahijah  and  Jeroboam.  Jeroboam, — a  servant 
whom  Solomon  had  raised  to  high  office, — was  insti- 
gated by  Ahijah,  a  "prophet"  neglected  by  Solomon, 
to  his  ungrateful  treason.  Ahijah  pretended  that  he 
had  a  divine  revelation  that  he  (Jeroboam)  was  to  suc- 
ceed Solomon  on  account  (of  course!)  of  the  king's 
shrines  to  Istar,  Chemosh,  and  Milcom.  If  the  narra- 
tive were  really  historic  nothing  could  be  more  "Sa- 
tanic" than  the  lies  and  treacheries  related  of  those  self- 
seekers.  Were  the  story  true,  the  failure  of  these 
divinely  appointed  "Satans"  to  overthrow  the  kingdom 
of  Solomon,  who  did  not  arm  against  them,  must  have 
been  due  to  his  popularity.  In  after  times  this  im- 
punity of  the  glorious  "idolator"  would  have  to  be 
explained  ;  consequentlv  we  find  Jahveh  telling  Solo- 
mon that,  offended  as  he  was  by  the  shrines,  he  would 
spare  him  for  his  father's  sake,  but  would  rend  the 
kingdom,  save  one  tribe,  from  his  (Solomon's)  son. 
That  this  should  be  immediately  followed  by  the  raising 
up  of  "Satans"  to  harass  Solomon  and  Israel,  Jahveh 
having  just  said  the  trouble  should  be  postponed  till 
after  the  king's  death,  suggests  that  the  whole  account 
of  these  quarrels  (i  Kings  xi.  14-40)  is  a  late  interpola- 

*  The  marriage  ot  Hadad  with  Pharaoh's  sister  and  that  of  Solomon 
shortly  after  witli  Pharaoh's  daugliter  might  naturally,  Colenso  says,  lead  to 
some  amicable  arrangement  between  these  two  young  princes,  representing 
respectively  the  ancient  domains  of  Jacob  and  Esau,  and  the  Bishop  adds  the 
pregnant  suggestion:  "  Thus  also  would  be  explained  another  phenomenon 
in  connexion  with  this  matter,  which  we  observe  in  the  Jehovistic  portions  of 
Genesis  — viz.,  the  M<o«c77/<j/'w«  of  Esau  and  Jacob"  (  Gen.  xxxiii ).  That 
Solomon  was  on  good  terms  with  Edom  appears  by  the  fact  that  his  naval 
station  was  in  that  land  ( i  K.  ix.  26). 


38  SOLOMONIC  LITBRATUEB. 

tion.  Up  to  that  point  the  old  record  is  unbroken. 
"He  had  peace  on  all  sides  round  about  him.  And 
Judah  and  Israel  dwelt  safely,  every  man  under  his 
vine  and  under  his  fig-tree,  from  Dan  to  Beersheba,  all 
the  days  of  Solomon"  (i  Kings  iv.  24-25). 

Jahveh,  in  his  personal  interview  with  Solomon  (i 
Kings  xi.  11-13),  said,  "I  will  surely  rend  the  kingdom 
from  thee  and  will  give  it  to  thy  servant."  That  is,  as 
explained  by  the  "prophet"  Ahijah,  to  Jeroboam.  As 
a  retribution  and  check  on  idolatry  the  selection,  besides 
violating  Jahveh's  promise  to  David  (i  Chron.  xxii), 
was  not  successful :  after  the  sundering  of  Israel  and 
Judah  into  internecine  kingdoms,  Jeroboam,  King  of 
Israel,  established  idolatry  more  actively  than  either 
Solomon  or  his  son  Rehoboam.  On  Jeroboam,  his 
selected  Nemesis,  Jahveh  inflicted  his  characteristic 
punishment  of  visiting  the  sins  of  the  fathers  on  the 
children ;  as  David  was  left  the  seduced  wife  whose 
husband  he  had  murdered,  while  his  son  was  executed ; 
as  Solomon  was  left  in  peaceful  enjoyment  of  his  king- 
dom and  none  of  the  sinful  shrines  destroyed,  while  his 
son  bore  the  penalty ;  so  now  Jeroboam,  elect  of  Jahveh, 
built  golden  calves,  surpassed  Solomon's  offences,  and 
vengeance  was  taken  on  his  son  Abijah,  who  died. 
This  Abijah  left  a  son,  Baasha,  who,  undeterred  by 
these  fatalities,  continued  the  "idolatries"  vv^ith  impun- 
ity for  the  twenty-four  years  of  his  reign,  the  punish- 
ment falling  on  his  son  Elah,  who  was  slain  after  only 
two  years'  reign  by  his  military  servant,  Zimri.  And 
this  Zimri,  who  thus  carried  on  Jahveh's  decree  against 
idolatry,  himself  continued  "in  the  ways  of  Jeroboam," 
the  shrines  and  idols  themselves  being  meanwhile  un- 


SOLOMON  AND    7 HE  SATANS.  39 

visited  by  any  executioner  or  iconoclast  until  some 
centuries  later. 

In  Josiah  there  arrived  a  King,  of  the  line  of  David, 
who  might  seem  by  his  fury  against  idolatry  to  be 
another  "man  after  God's  own  heart."  lie  pulverised 
the  images  and  the  shrines,  he  "sacrificed  the  priests 
on  their  own  altars,"  he  even  dug  up  the  bones  of  those 
who  had  ministered  at  such  altars  and  burnt  them.  He 
trusted  Jahveh  absolutely.  He  went  to  the  prophetess, 
Hulda,  who  told  him  that  he  should  be  "gathered  to  his 
grave  in  peace."  He  was  slain  miserably,  by  the  King 
of  Egypt,  to  whom  the  country  then  became  subject. 

Josephus  ascribed  the  act  of  Josiah,  in  hurling  him- 
self against  an  army  that  was  not  attacking  him,  to  fate. 
The  fate  was  that  Josiah,  having  exterminated  the 
wizards  and  fortune-tellers,  repaired  to  the  only  dan- 
gerous one  among  them,  because  she  pretended  to  be  a 
"prophetess,"  inspired  by  Jahveh.  Her  assurances  led 
him  to  believe  himself  invulnerable,  personally,  and  that 
in  his  life-time  Jerusalem  would  not  suffer  the  woes  she 
predicted.  Josiah,  "of  the  house  of  David,"  seems  to 
have  thought  that  his  zeal  in  destroying  the  shrines 
which  his  ancestor  Solomon  had  introduced,  mainly 
Egyptian,  would  be  so  grandly  consummated  if  he  could 
destroy  a  Pharaoh,  that  he  insisted  on  a  combat. 
Pliaraoh-Necho  sent  an  embassy  to  say  that  he  was  not 
his  enemy,  but  on  his  way  to  fight  the  Assyrian  :  "God 
commanded  me  to  hasten ;  forbear  thou  from  opposing 
God,  who  is  with  me,  that  he  destroy  thee  not."  Here, 
however,  was  the  fanatic's  opportunity  for  an  Arma- 
geddon :  Pharaoh  had  appealed  to  what  Solomon  would 
have  regarded  as  their  common  deity,  but   which  to 


40  SOLOMONIC   LITERATURE. 

Josiah  meant  a  chance  to  pit  Jahveh  against  the  God  of 
Egypt.  On  Jahveh 's  invisible  forces  he  must  have 
depended  for  victory.  So  perished  Josiah,  and  with 
him  the  independence  of  his  country. 

Solomon,  the  Prince  of  Peace,  had  made  the  house  of 
Pharaoh  the  ally  of  his  country.  Josiah  carries  his 
people  back  under  Egyptian  bondage.  Solomon  had 
built  the  metropolitan  Temple,  whose  shrines,  symbols, 
works  of  art,  represented  a  catholicity  to  all  races  and 
religions, — peace  on  earth,  good  will  to  man.  Josiah, 
panic-stricken  about  a  holy  book  purporting  to  have 
been  found  in  the  Temple,  concerning  which  the  king 
by  his  counsellors  consulted  a  female  fortune-teller, 
makes  a  holocaust  of  all  that  Solomon  had  built  up. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

SOLOMON    IN   THE    IIKXATEUCH. 

"And  when  they  brought  out  the  money  that  was 
brought  into  the  house  of  Jahveh,  Hilkiah  the  priest 
found  the  book  of  the  law  of  Jahveh  given  by  Moses. 
And  Hilkiah  answered  and  said  to  Shaphan  the  scribe, 
I  have  found  the  book  of  the  law  in  the  house  of  Jah- 
veh." (2  Chron.  xxxiv.  14,  15.)  The  Chronicler  adds 
to  the  earlier  account  (2  Kings  xxii.  8)  the  words 
"given  by  Moses,"  which  looks  as  if  the  authenticity  of 
the  book  (Deuteronomy)  had  not  been  without  ques- 
tion. The  finding  of  the  Book  is  set  forth  in  a  sort  of 
picture,  wherein  are  grouped  the  priest,  the  theologian, 
the  phantom  prophet,  the  deity,  the  temple,  and  the 
contribution-box.  Every  part  of  the  ecclesiastical  ma- 
chine is  present. 

One  is  irresistibly  reminded  of  the  finding  of  the 
Book  of  Mormon  by  Joseph  Smith,  although  it  would 
be  unfair  to  ascribe  Deuteronomist  atrocities  to  the 
revelations  of  the  American  phantom,  Mormon.  Nor 
is  this  a  mere  coincidence.  There  are  lists  of  the  early 
Mormons  which  show  a  large  proportion  of  them  to 
have  borne  Old  Testament  names,  derived  from  Puritan 
ancestors.  When  Solomon  set  up  his  philosophic 
throne  at  TTarvard  University,  and  the  parishes  of  the 
Pilgrims  became  Unitarian,  and  Boston  became  artis- 
tic, literary,  and  worldly,  the  Jahvists  began  to  migrate, 

41 


42  SOLOMONIC  LirERArURE. 

carrying  with  them  their  Sabbatarian  Ark,  in  which  so 
many  frontier  communities  are  imprisoned  "unto  this 
day."  Some  of  them  have  become  conquerors  of  Ha- 
waiian "Canaanites,"  appropriating  their  lands.  But 
the  Vermont  Hilkiah,  Joseph  Smith,  discerned  that  a 
new  Deuteronomy  was  needed  to  deal  with  the  many 
American  sects,  and  was  guided  by  an  Angel  of  the 
Lord  to  a  spot  in  Ontario  County,  New  York,  where  the 
Book  was  found  ( 1827),  which  he  was  enabled  to  trans- 
late by  the  aid  of  his  "Urim  and  Thummim"  spectacles, 
found  beside  the  Book.  In  the  Book  were  discussed 
the  principles  of  all  the  sects,  though  not  by  name,  as 
in  Deuteronomy  Moses  is  made  to  deal  with  the  condi- 
tions which  had  arisen  since  the  time  of  Solomon.  Un- 
fortunatel}»  for  these  American  Jahvists,  they  had  left 
the  New  English  brains  behind,  with  Channing  and 
Emerson,  and  had  not  carried  with  them  enough  to 
produce  a  western  Jeremiah  to  save  their  movement 
from  ridicule  and  popular  hatred. 

"Thy  words  were  found  and  I  did  eat  them,"  says 
Jeremiah  (xv.  16).  Whether,  as  some  scholars  think, 
Jeremiah  had  any  part  in  the  composition  of  the  Book 
"found,"  or  not,  his  rage  attests  the  existence  at  the 
time  of  an  important  Solomonic  School.  "How  say 
you,  We  are  wise,  and  the  law  of  the  Lord  is  with  us  ? 
Behold  the  lying  pen  of  the  scribes  has  turned  it  to  a 
fiction."  (viii.  8.)  "They  are  grown  strong  in  the 
land  but  not  for  the  faith."  (ix.  ^.)  "Thus  saith  the 
Lord,  Let  not  the  wise  man  glory  in  his  wisdom,  neither 
let  the  mighty  man  glory  in  his  might."     (ix.  23.) 

The  Deuteronomist  especially  aims  at  suppression  of 
the  Solomonic  cult  and  regime.  The  law,  not  found 
in  Exodus,  against  marriage  with  foreigners   (Deut. 


SOLOMON  IN    THE   IIEXATEUCH.  43 

vii.  3)  is  especially  turned  against  Solomon's  example 
by  tlie  addition  that  such  a  niarriajT^e  will  "turn  away  thy 
son  from  following  mc,  that  they  may  serve  other 
gods."  The  wife,  or  other  member  of  a  man's  family, 
who  entices  him  to  serve  other  gods,  is  to  be  stoned  to 
death,  (xiii.  6-1 1.)  Moses  is  represented  as  antici- 
pating the  setting  up  of  kings,  and  even  the  particular 
events  of  Solomon's  reign.  Solomon's  "forty  thousand 
stalls  of  horses"  (i  Kings  iv.  26),  his  horses  brought 
out  of  Egypt  (i  Kings  x.  28),  his  wives,  his  silver  and 
gold,  are  all  foreseen  by  the  ancient  lawgiver,  who  pro- 
vides that :  "He  [your  king]  shall  not  multiply  horses 
to  himself,  nor  cause  the  people  to  return  to  Egypt  to 
the  end  that  he  should  multiply  horses  ....  neither 
shall  he  multiply  wives  to  himself,  that  his  heart  turn 
not  away ;  neither  shall  he  greatly  multiply  to  himself 
silver  and  gold."     (Deut.  xvii.  16,  17.) 

This  Deuteronomist  Moses  foresaw,  too,  that  some 
check  on  the  divine  appointments  to  the  throne  would 
be  needed.  "Thou  shalt  in  any  wise  set  him  king  over 
thee  whom  thy  God  shall  choose :  one  from  among  thy 
brethren  shalt  thou  set  over  thee  :  thou  mayest  not  put  a 
foreigner  over  thee."  As  all  of  these  commandments 
were  received  by  Moses  from  Jahveh  himself  (Deut. 
vi.  I,  and  elsewhere),  it  is  worthy  of  remark  that  there 
should  be  no  trace  of  that  anger  with  which  Jahveh 
met  the  proposal  for  a  monarchy:  "they  have  rejected 
me,  that  I  should  not  be  king  over  them."  (i  Sam. 
viii.)  In  1776  Thomas  Paine,  in  his  Common  Sense, 
used  this  scriptural  denunciation  of  kings  with  much 
effect,  and  it  no  doubt  contributed  much  to  overthrow 
British  monarchy  in  America. 

The  special  denunciations  of  sun-worship  in  Deuter- 


44  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

onomy  (iv.  19,  xvii.  3)  suggest  a  probability  that  Solo- 
mon's allusion  to  the  sun,  when  dedicating  the  temple, 
may  have  been  popularly  associated  with  the  punishable 
practice  alluded  to  in  Job  xxxi.  26,  of  kissing  the  hand 
to  the  sun  and  moon.  The  words  of  Solomon  are  can- 
celled in  the  Massoretic  text,  and  do  not  appear  in  any 
English  version,  but  they  are  preserved  by  the  LXX., 
and  there  declared  to  be  in  the  book  of  Jasher.  "They 
are,"  says  Dr.  Briggs,  "recognised  by  the  best  modern 
critics  as  belonging  to  the  original  text  [of  i  Kings 
viii.  12,  13]  which  then  would  read  : 

"The  sun  is  known  in  the  heavens, 

But  Jahveh  said  that  he  would  dwell  in  thick  darkness. 
I  have  built  up  a  house  of  habitation  for  thee, 
A  place  for  thee  to  dwell  in  forever. 
Lo,  is  it  not  written  in  the  book  of  Jasher?"* 

This  suppression  of  the  opening  line  of  the  Dedica- 
tion, at  cost  of  a  grand  poetic  antithesis,  reveals  the 
hand  of  mere  bigoted  ignorance.  How  many  other  fine 
things  have  been  eliminated,  how  many  reduced  to  com- 
monplaces, we  know  not,  but  the  additions  and  inter- 
polations in  the  Old  Testament  have  been  nearly  'all 
traced.  Many  of  these  are  novelettes  more  prurient 
than  the  tales  forbidden  in  families  when  found  in  the 
pages  of  Boccaccio  and  Balzac,  and  it  is  a  notable  evi- 
dence of  the  mere  fetish  that  the  Bible  has  become  to 
most  sects,  that  a  chorus  of  abuse  instead  of  welcome 
still  meets  the  scholars  who  prove  the  quasi-spurious 
character  of  the  most  odious  stories  in  Genesis. 

*  The  Bible,  the  Church,  and  the  Reason,  p.  137,  n.  Dr.  Briggs  points 
out  citations  from  the  book  of  Jasher  in  Num.  xxi.,  Jos.  x.,  ancTa  Sam.  i. 
where  a  dirge  of  David  is  given,  and  adds:  "The  book  of  Jasher  containing 
poems  of  David  and  Solomon  could  not  have  been  written  before  Solomon." 
The  bearing  of  this  on  the  age  of  the  Hexateuch,  in  its  present  form,  is 
obvious. 


SOLOMON  IN    THE  HEXATEUCII.  45 

Bishop  Colenso  seems  to  have  fouiul  in  such  tales 
only  the  work  of  a  Jahvist  with  a  taste  for  obscene  de- 
tails, but  too  little  attention  has  been  paid  to  the  investi- 
gations of  Bernstein,  who  discovers  in  many  of  these 
legends  a  late  Ephraimic  effort  to  blacken  the  charac- 
ter of  the  whole  house  and  line  of  Judah.*  Bernstein 
does  not  deal  with  the  story  of  Adonijah  and  Jcdidiah 
(Solomon),  whose  relative  antiquity  is  shown,  I  think, 
in  the  fact  that  no  shameful  action  is  ascribed  to  the 
elder  brother  to  account  for  the  deprivation  of  his 
primogenitive  right.  After  Solomon's  accession,  how- 
ever, Adonijah  proposed  to  marry  the  maiden  Abishag, 
who  technically  belonged  to  his  father's  harem,  and 
probably  this  tradition  gave  a  cue  to  the  inventor  of  the 
story  of  Absalom's  having  gone  to  his  father's  concu- 
bines in  order  to  base  on  the  act  a  claim  to  the  kingdom 
while  his  father  was  yet  alive. 

Absalom's  shameful  act-on  is  supposed  to  be  a  fulfil- 
ment of  the  sentence  pronounced  against  David  because 
of  his  crime  against  Uriah.  A  close  examination  of 
that  passage  (2  Sam.  xii.  10-14)  must  suggest  doubts 
about  verses  11,  12,  but  at  any  rate  the  sentence  is  not 
fulfilled  by  Absalom's  alleged  act :  David's  "wives" 
were  not  taken  away  "before  his  eyes,"  and  given  "unto 
his  neighbor,"  but  some  of  his  concubines  were  appro- 
priated by  his  son.  Absalom's  act  (2  Sam.  xvi.  20-23) 
and  that  of  David's  consigning  the  concubines  to  per- 
petual isolation  or  imprisonment  (2  Sam.  xx.  3)  are 
not  alluded  to  in  David's  mourning  for  Absalom,  nor  in 
Joab's  rebuke  of  this  grief.  In  these  strange  incoherent 
items  one  seems  to  find  the  debris,  so  to  say,  of  some 

*  Ursprun{^  der  Sagen  voti  Abraham,  Isaak,  und  Jakob.  Krilische 
Untersuchung  von  .^.  Bernstein.     Berlin.     1871. 


46  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

masterly  work,  picturing  a  sort  of  Nemesis  pursuing 
David  and  his  family  for  the  crime  against  Uriah. 
Ahithophel,  who  is  described  as  "the  word  of  God," 
was  the  grandfather  of  Bathsheba  and  the  chief  friend 
and  counsellor  of  David,  yet  it  was  he  who  suddenly 
becomes  a  traitor  to  the  King,  foreshadowing  Judas — 
as  his  sinister  name  ("brother  of  lies")  implies — even  to 
the  extent  of  hanging  himself.  It  was  Bathsheba's 
grandfather  who  moved  Absalom  to  dishonor  his 
father's  concubines.  But  were  they  only  concubines  in 
the  original  story,  or  were  they  David's  wives,  as  pre- 
dicted in  the  verses  ii,  12  (2  Sam.  xii.)  which  seem 
misplaced  and  unfulfilled  ?  It  may  have  been  that  some 
of  the  details  of  the  story  were  too  gross  for  preserva- 
tion, or  too  disgraceful  to  David,  but  I  cannot  think 
that  we  possess  in  its  original  form  the  tragedy  sug- 
gested by  the  presence  of  an  ancestor  of  seduced  Bath- 
sheba,— the  sinister  "word  of  God"  Ahithophel, — and 
the  death  of  the  child  of  that  adultery,  the  deflowering 
of  Tamar,  David's  daughter,  the  disgrace  and  violent 
death  of  Amnon,  Absalom,  apparently  of  Daniel  also, 
and  finally  of  Adonijah.  What  became  of  the  eight 
wives  of  David?  Was  that  prediction  ascribed  to 
Nathan,  of  their  defilement,  without  any  corresponding 
narrative? 

In  a  previous  chapter  I  have  pointed  out  the  improb- 
ability that  the  fatal  wrath  of  Solomon  against  Adoni- 
jah could  have  been  excited  by  his  brother's  proposal  of 
honorable  wedlock  with  the  maiden  Abishag,  and  con- 
jectured that  there  may  have  been  a  story,  now  lost,  of 
rivalry  between  the  brothers  for  this  "very  fair"  dam- 
sel. Whatever  may  have  been  the  real  history  there  is 
little  doubt  that  there  was  substituted  for  it  some  real 


SOLOMON  IN   THE  IIEXATEUCIL  47 

offence  by  Adonijah,  perhaps  such  as  that  afterwards 
ascribed  to  Absalom.  Bathsheba  herself  is  here  the 
Nemesis,  as  her  grandfather  is  in  the  case  of  Absalom. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  we  are  dealing  with  the 
age  which  produced  the  thrilling  story  of  Joseph  and 
his  brothers,  and  Potiphar's  wife,  and  the  contrast  with 
his  chastity  represented  in  the  profligacy  of  Judah. 
Indications  have  been  left  in  Gen.  xxxv.  at  the  end  of 
verse  22  of  the  suppression  of  a  story  of  Reuben  and 
Bilhah,  and  no  doubt  there  were  other  suppressions. 
How  very  bad  the  story  of  Reuben  was  we  may  judge, 
as  Bernstein  points  out,  by  the  severity  of  his  con- 
demnation by  Jacob  (Gen.  xlix.)  and  by  the  shocking 
things  about  Judah  (Gen.  xxxviii.)  allowed  to  remain 
in  the  text.  In  the  latter  chapter  Bernstein  finds  the 
same  personages, — David,  Bathsheba,  Solomon, — act- 
ing in  a  similar  drama  to  that  presented  in  the  Samuel 
fragments,  and  under  their  diguiscs  may  perhaps  be 
discovered  some  of  the  details  suppressed  in  the  Davidic 
records.     Bernstein  savs : 

"In  Genesis  xxxviii.  Judah,  the  fourth  son  of  the 
patriarch,  is  shown  in  a  light  which  is  to  lay  bare  the 
stain  of  his  existence.  Judah  went  to  Adullam,  where 
lived  his  friend  'Chirah.'  He  married  a  Canaanite,  the 
daughter  of  Shuah.*  His  eldest  son  was  called  Er. 
He  (Er)  was  displeasing  in  the  eyes  of  Jahveh,  there- 
fore Jahveh  slew  him.  His  second  son  was  called 
Onan :  he  died  in  consequence  of  his  sexual  sins.  The 
third  son's  name  was  Shelah,  and,  as  it  is  mysteriously 
stated  after  his  name,  'he  was  at  Chczib  when  his  mother 
bare  him.'  Chczib  is  certainly  the  name  of  a  place,  and 
the  addition  may  therefore  signify  that  the  mother  had 

*Thc  marriage  is  doubtful:  "  He  took  her  and  went  in  to  her"  (Gen. 
xxxviii.  2.) 


4^  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

named  the  boy  Shelah  because  the  father  happened  to 
be  in  Chezib  at  the  time,  absent  from  home.  Chezib 
has,  however,  a  second  meaning.  .  .  .  Chezib  means 
'deception,  lie,'  and  is  used  by  the  prophet  Micah  in  this 
sense  (i.  4).  Now  as  Shelah,  in  our  narrative,  serves 
to  deceive  Tamar's  hopes,  held  out  by  Judah,  the  allu- 
sion to  Chezib  is  appropriate.  However  this  may  be, 
Judah's  sons  are  all  represented  as  despicable.  Even 
Judah  himself  fell  into  bad  ways  and  was  trapped  into 
the  snares  laid  by  his  daughter-in-law  Tamar,  who 
played  the  prostitute.  Thus  only  did  Judah  found  a 
generation,  from  which  King  David  is  said  to  descend, 
from  a  son  of  Judah  called  Paretz,  meaning  'breaking 
through,'  in  which  manner  he  is  supposed  to  have  be- 
haved towards  his  brother  at  his  birth. 

"Veiled  as  the  libel  is  here,  it  becomes  apparent  as 
soon  as  we  cast  a  glance  upon  David's  family.  The  pic- 
ture which  this  libel  draws  of  Judah  hits  David  himself 
sharply.  The  'Canaanite' — namely,  whom  Judah  mar- 
ries [  ?] — is  no  other  than  the  wife  of  Uriah  the  Hittite 
(murdered  at  David's  command)  whom  David  himself 
married  adulterously.  This  wife  of  Judah  is  said  to 
have  been  the  daughter  of  a  man  named  Shuah.  There- 
fore she  is  a  Bath-shua,  and  is  thus  called  (verse  12). 
But  Bathshua  is  also  Bathsheba  herself,  as  one  may 
conclude  from  i  Chron.  iii.  5.  The  eldest  son  died, 
hateful  in  the  sight  of  God,  just  like  the  first  son  of 
Bathsheba  (2  Sam.  xii.  15).  The  son  of  Judah  is 
alleged  to  have  been  called  Er  ("^5^);  why?  because 
reading  it  backwards  (3>*i,  zvrong)  it  means  'bad,' 
'wicked.'  The  second  son  is  called  Onan  ("pis^),  and 
dies  for  sexual  sins.  He  is  no  other  than  David's  son 
Amnon  (*iD"«iS!),  who  meets  his  death  on  account  of  his 


SOLOMON  IN   THE  HEXATEUCH.  49 

sexual  sins  (2  Sam.  xiii).  Tlie  Taniar  of  Judah's  story 
is  the  same  as  the  Tamar  dishonored  by  Amnon, — the 
daughter  of  David,  who,  in  spite  of  her  misfortune  and 
licr  purity,  is,  to  the  entire  ruin  of  her  good  name, 
humihated  to  a  person  who  plays  the  prostitute.  And 
Shelah  (nblT)  who  does  not  die, — add  to  his  name  only 
the  letter  *,2,  and  you  have  tH'-I'^'iT',  Solomon." 

If  in  the  light  of  these  facts,  which  reveal  the  mythi- 
cal character  of  some  of  the  worst  things  told  of  Judah 
and  David,  the  blessings  of  Jacob  (Gen.  xlix.)  be  care- 
fully read,  the  blessing  on  Judah  will  be  found  rather 
equivocal.     Colenso  translates : 

"A  lion's  whelp  is  Judah, 
Ravaging  the  young  of  the  suckling  ewes." 

Is  this  couplet  related  to  Nathan's  parable  of  the  rich 
man  taking  away  the  poor  man's  one  little  ewe  lamb 
which  smote  the  conscience  of  David  ? 

"The  staff  shall  not  depart  from  Judah, 
Nor  the  rod  from  between  his  feet 
Until  Shiloh  come." 

Is  this  merely  a  device  of  the  Ephraimite  rebels,  Jero- 
boamites,  pretending  to  find  in  a  patriarchal  prophecy 
a  prediction  that  Judah  is  to  be  superseded  by  the 
descendants  of  Joseph  (on  whom  Jacob's  encomiums 
and  blessings  are  unstinted)  ?  Shiloh  was  always  their 
headquarters. 

It-is  probable,  however,  that  there  is  here  a  play  upon 
words.  The  words  "Until  Shiloh  come"  are  rendered 
by  some  scholars  "Till  he  (Judah)  come  to  Shiloh," 
and  interpreted  as  meaning  "Till  he  come  to  rest." 
The  Samaritan  version  (" donee  vcniat  Pae'iHens") 
seems   to   identify   Shiloh   with    Solomon.     (Colenso, 


50  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

Pent.  iii.  p.  127.)  But  this  is  transparently  Shelah  over 
again.  Shelomoh  (Solomon),  Shelah,  and  Shiloh  are 
substantially  of  the  same  etymological  significance.  It 
will  be  observed  that  in  Gen.  xxxviii.  Shelah  is  the  only 
person  whose  character  is  not  blackened.  The  Ephra- 
imic  poem,  the  "Blessings  of  Jacob," — each  blessing  a 
vaticinium  ex  evento, — could  well  afford  a  half-dis- 
guised compliment  to  Solomon  who  had  made  no 
attempt  to  suppress  the  rebels  of  Shiloh, — the  city  of 
Abijah,  who  originated  the  Jeroboamic  revolution  which 
divided  the  Davidic  kingdom.  Jacob's  blessing  on 
Joseph  is  of  course  a  blessing  on  Ephraim:  it  closes 
with  a  transfer  of  the  crown  (from  Judah)  to  "him 
that  is  a  prince  among  his  brethren."  This  is  "rest" 
from  the  arrows  of  David,  this  is  the  coming  of  Shiloh ; 
it  occurred  under  the  reign  of  the  Prince  of  Peace, 
Solomon,  and  it  could  not  be  undone  by  Solomon's  son 
Rehoboam. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

SOLOMONIC    ANTIJAIIVISM. 

The  ferocities  of  Josiah  and  his  Jahvists  indicate  the 
presence  of  an  important  Solomonist  School.  Their 
culture  and  tendencies  are  reflected,  as  we  have  seen, 
in  the  rage  of  prophets  against  them,  and  the  continu- 
ance of  their  strength  is  shown  in  the  preservation  of 
Agur's  Voltairian  satire  on  Jahvism,  and  Job's  avowed 
blasphemies : 

"If  indeed  ye  will  glorify  yourselves  above  me, 
And  prove  me  guilty  of  blasphemy — 
Know  then,  that  God  hath  wronged  me!" 

This  translation  from  Job,  quoted  from  Professor 
Dillon,  need  only  be  compared  with  that  of  the  author- 
ised and  the  revised  versions  to  show  us  the  causa  caii- 
sans  to-day  which  of  old  added  four  hundred  interpola- 
tions to  the  Book  of  Job  to  soften  its  criticism. 

It  appears  strange,  however,  that  Professor  Dillon 
has  not  included  among  The  Sceptics  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment three  writers  in  the  composite  eighty-ninth 
Psalm,  nor  remarked  its  relation  to  the  Book  of  Job. 
At  the  head  of  this  wonderful  composition  the  myth- 
ical wise  man  of  i  Kings  iv.  31,  Ethan,  rises  ("Maschil 
of  Ethan  the  Ezrahite,"  perhaps  incaning  Wisdom  of 
the  Everlasting  Helper)  to  attest  the  divine  mercies  and 
faithfulness  in  all  generations.  This  is  in  two  verses, 
evidently  ancient,  which  a  later  hand,  apparently,  has 

SI 


5^  SOLOMONIC   LITERATURE. 

pointed  with  a  specification  of  the  covenant  with  David. 
After  the  "Selah"  which  ends  these  four  verses  come 
fourteen  verses  of  sermonising  upon  them,  in  which 
nearly  all  of  the  points  made  by  Job's  "comforters"  are 
put  in  a  nutshell.  The  sons  of  God  who  presented  them- 
selves, Satan  among  them,  in  his  council  (Job  i.  6) 
appear  here  also  (Ps.  Ixxxix.  6)  : 

"Who  among  the  sons  of  the  gods  is  like  unto  Jahveh, 
A  God  very  terrible  in  the  council  of  the  holy  ones." 

After  the  mighty  things  that  "Jah"  had  done  to  his 
enemies  have  been  affirmed  an  Elohist  takes  up  the  bur- 
den and  a  "vision"  like  that  of  Eliphaz  (Job  iv.  13)  is 
appealed  to : 

"Then  thou  spakest  in  vision  to  thy  holy  ones." 

The  vision's  revelation  (Job  v.  17)  "Happy  is  the 
man  whom  God  correcteth"  is  also  in  this  psalm 
(32,  33)  :  "Then  will  I  visit  their  transgression  with 
the  rod,  and  their  iniquity  with  stripes,  but  my  mercy 
will  I  not  utterly  take  from  him."  And  Eliphaz's 
assurance  "thy  seed  will  be  great"  (v.  25)  corresponds 
with  that  in  our  psalm  (verse  36),  "His  seed  shall 
endure  forever." 

When  the  psalmist  of  the  vision  has  pictured,  as  if 
in  dissolving  views,  the  military  renown  of  David,  God's 
"servant,"  and  his  "horn,"  pointing  to  Solomon,  God's 
"first-born,"  the  transgressions  of  the  latter  are  inti- 
mated (30-33),  but  the  seer  continues  to  utter  the  divine 
promises : 

"My  covenant  will  I  not  break, 
Nor  alter  the  thing  that  has  gone  out  of  my  lips. 
One  thing  have  I  sworn  by  my  holiness; 
T  will  not  lie  unto  David : 


SOLOMONIC  ANTTJAHVISM.  53 

His  seed  shall  endure  forever, 
And  his  throne  as  the  sun  before  me; 
As  the  moon  which  is  established  forever: 
Faithful  is  the  witness  in  the  sky.     Selah." 

Then  breaks  out  the  indignant  accuser : 

"But  thou  HAST  cast  ofif  and  rejected! 
Thou  hast  been  wroth  with  thine  'anointed' ; 
Thou  hast  broken  the  covenant  with  thy  'servant,' 
Thou  hast  profaned  his  crown  to  the  very  dust ; 
Thou  hast  broken  down  all  his  defences  ; 
Thou  hast  brought  his  strongholds  to  ruin  ! 
All  the  wayfarers  that  pass  by  despoil  him ; 
He  is  become  a  reproach  to  his  neighbors. 
Thou  hast  exalted  the  right-hand  of  his  adversaries, 
Thou  hast  made  all  his  enemies  to  rejoice. 
Yea,  thou  turnest  back  the  edge  of  his  sword. 
And  hast  not  enabled  him  to  stand  in  battle. 
Thou  hast  made  his  brightness  to  cease. 
And  hurled  his  throne  down  to  the  ground. 
The  days  of  his  youth  thou  hast  shortened : 
Thou  hast  covered  him  with  shame!     Selah." 

A  sarcastic  "Selah,"  or  "so  it  is!" — if  Eben  Ezra's 
definition  of  Selah  be  correct. 

Then  follow  four  verses  by  a  more  timid  plaintiflf, 
who,  almost  in  the  words  of  Job  (e,  g.,  x.  20),  reminds 
Jahveh  of  the  shortness  of  life,  and  the  impossibility  of 
any  return  from  the  grave,  and  asks  how  long  he  intends 
to  wait  before  fulfilling  his  promises.  He  also  sup- 
plies Kohelcth  with  a  text  by  the  pessimistic  exclama- 
tion, "For  what  vanity  hast  thou  created  all  the  children 
of  men" ! 

After  this  writer  has  sounded  his  "Selah,"  another 
rather  more  bitterly  reminds  Jahveh,  in  three  verses, 
that  not  only  his  chosen  people  are  in  disgrace,  but  his 
own  enemies  are  triumphant. 

(These  two  arc  much  like  the  writer  of  Psalms  xliv. 


54  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

9-26,  who  almost  repeats  the  points  made  by  the  above 
three  remonstrants,  and  asks  Jahveh,  "Why  sleepest 
thou?") 

Finally  a  Jahvist  doxology,  fainter  than  any  ap- 
pended to  the  other  four  books,  completes  this  strange 
eighty-ninth  psalm : 

"Praised  be  Jahveh  for  evermore ! 
Amen,  and  Amen!" 

Great  is  Diana  of  the  Ephesians!  Or  is  this  the 
half-sardonic  submission  of  Job  under  the  whirlwind- 
answer,  which  extorted  from  him  no  tribute  except  a 
virtual  admission  that  when  the  ethical  debate  became 
a  question  of  which  could  wield  the  loudest  whirlwinds, 
he  surrendered ! 

In  Job's  case  the  only  recantation  is  that  of  Jahveh 
himself,  who  admits  (xlii.  7)  that  Job  had  all  along 
spoken  the  right  thing  about  him  (Jahveh).  The 
epilogue  is  a  complete  denial  of  Jahvist  theology. 

Job's  small  voice  of  scepticism  which  followed  the 
whirlwind  was  never  silenced.  The  fragment  of  Agur 
(Proverbs  xxx.  1-4)  appears  to  have  been  written  as 
the  alternative  reply  of  Job  to  Jahveh.  Job  had  said, 
"I  am  vile,  I  will  lay  my  hand  upon  my  mouth,  I  have 
uttered  that  I  understand  not."  Agur  adds  ironically, 
"I  am  more  stupid  than  other  men,  in  me  is  no  human 
understanding  nor  yet  the  wisdom  to  comprehend  the 
science  of  sacred  things."  Then  quoting  Jahveh's 
boast  about  distributing  the  wind  (Job  xxxviii.  24), 
about  his  "sons  shouting  for  joy"  {^Ihid.  7),  and  giving 
the  sea  its  garment  of  cloud  {Ih'xd.  9),  Agur,  the 
"Hebrew  Voltaire,"  as  Professor  Dillon  aptly  styles 
him,  asks : 


SOLOMONIC  ANTIJAIIVISM.  55 

"Who  has  ascended  into  heaven  and  come  down  again? 
Who  can  gather  the  wind  in  his  fists? 
Who  can  bind  the  seas  in  a  garment? 
Who  can  grasp  all  the  ends  of  the  earth  ? 
Such  an  one  I  would  question  about  God:  'What  is  his  name? 
And  what  the  name  of  his  sons,  if  thou  knowest?'  " 

The  stupid  Jahvist  commentator  who  follows  Agur 
(Proverbs  xxx.  5-14)  and  in  the  same  chapter  interpo- 
lates 17  and  20,  has  the  indirect  value  of  rendering  it 
probable  that  there  were  a  great  many  "Agurites"  (a 
"bad  generation"  he  calls  them)  and  that  they  were 
rather  aristocratic  and  distrustful  of  the  masses.  This 
commentator,  who  cannot  understand  the  Agur  frag- 
ments, also  shows  us,  side  by  side  with  the  brilliant 
genius,  lines  revealing  the  mentally  pauperised  condi- 
tion into  wdiich  Jahvism  must  have  fallen  when  such  a 
writer  was  its  champion. 

It  is  tolerably  certain  that  such  fragments  as  those 
of  Agur  imply  a  literary  atmosphere,  a  cultured  phil- 
osophic constituency,  and  a  long  precedent  evolution  of 
rationalism.  Such  peaks  are  not  solitary,  but  rise  from 
mountain  ranges.  Professor  Dillon,  whose  admir- 
able volume  merits  study,  finds  Buddhistic  influence  in 
Agur's  fragments.*  But  I  cannot  find  in  them  any 
trace  of  the  recluse  or  of  the  mystic  ;  he  does  not  appear 
to  be  even  an  "agnostic,"  for  when  he  says  "I  have  wor- 
ried myself  about  God  and  succeeded  not,"  the  vein  is 
too  satirical  for  a  mind  interested  in  theistic  specula- 
tions. He  is  a  man  of  the  world, — more  of  a  Goethe 
than  a  Voltaire ;  he  regards  Jahveh  as  a  phantasm,  is 
well  domesticated  in  his  planet,  and  does  not  moralise 
on  the  facts  of  nature  in  the  Oriental  any  more  than  in 

*  The  Sceptics  of  the  Old  Testament,  pp.  149,  1^5. 


56  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

the  Pharisaic  way.  He  appears  to  be  a  true  Solomonic 
philosopher  and  naturalist.  I  cannot  agree  to  Professor 
Dillon's  omission  of  the  "Four  Cunning  Ones"  (Prov- 
erbs XXX.  24-28),  because  they  are  not  of  the  same 
metrical  form  as  the  others,  and  lead  "nowhither."    The 

lines 

"The  ants  are  a  people  not  strong, 
Yet  they  provide  their  meat  in  the  summer," 

no  doubt  led  to  the  famous  parable  of  Proverbs  vi. 
6-1 1,  "Go  to  the  ant,  thou  sluggard."  Being  there 
imbedded  in  an  otherwise  commonplace  editorial  chap- 
ter, they  may  have  been  derived  from  some  commen- 
taitor  on  Agur. 

Agur  apparently  represents  the  Solomonic  thinkers 
brought  with  the  rest  of  the  people  under  the  trials  that 
made  Israel  the  Job  of  nations.  They  are  such  as  those 
who  led  astonished  Jeremiah  to  ask  "what  kind  of  wis- 
dom is  in  them?"  (Jeremiah  viii.)  They  "do  not 
recognise  Jahveh's  judgments";  in  "shame,  dismay, 
captivity,  they  have  rejected  Jahveh's  word."  The 
exquisite  humor  of  Agur  shows  that  these  philosophers 
did  not  lose  their  serenity.  Agur  sees  man  passing  his 
life  between  two  insatiable  daughters  of  the  ghoul,  "the 
Grave  and  the  Womb," — Birth  and  Death, — and  amid 
the  inevitable  evils  of  life  he  will  be  wise  to  refrain  from 
rage  and  lay  his  hand  upon  his  lips. 

But  silence  was  just  what  the  Jahvist  omniscients 
could  not  attain  to.  Notwithstanding  Jahveh's  confes- 
sion that  Job  was  right  in  his  position,  and  the  orthodox 
wrong  in  their  theory  that  all  evil  is  providential,  the 
"comforters"  rise  again  in  the  commentator  who  begins 
(Proverbs  xxx.  5)  : 

"Every  word  of  God  is  perfected. 
He  is  a  shield  to  them  that  trust  in  Him," 


SOLOMOXIC   ANTIJAIIVISM.  57 

and  proceeds  in  verse  14  with  his  inanities.  And  these 
have  prevailed  ever  since.  Even  Jesus,  when  he  took 
up  the  burden  of  Wisdom,  and  rebuked  the  Jahvist 
superstition  that  those  on  whom  a  tower  fell  were  sub- 
jects of  a  judgment,  must  have  his  stupid  corrector  to 
add,  "Except  ye  repent  ye  shall  all  likewise  perish." 
This  simpleton's  superstition  has  taken  the  place  of  the 
great  successor  of  Solomon,  and  to-day,  amid  all  the 
learning  of  Christendom,  is  proclaiming  that  the  Father 
is  "permitting"  all  the  Satans, — war,  disease,  earth- 
quake, famine, — to  harry  his  children  just  to  test  them 
or  to  chasten  them.  Why  should  omnipotence  create 
a  race  requiring  worse  than  inquisitorial  tortures  for 
its  discipline?  In  all  the  literature  of  Christendom 
there  is  not  one  honest  attempt  to  deal  with  the  evils  and 
agonies  of  nature ;  and  at  this  moment  we  find  theists 
apotheosizing  the  "Unknowable  from  which  all  things 
proceed,"  without  any  appreciation  of  the  fact  that  in 
the  remote  past  Jahvism  sought  the  same  refuge,  and 
that  it  was  proved  by  Job  a  refuge  of  fallacies.  In  an 
awakening  moral  and  humane  sentiment  Job  stands  in 
this  latter  day  upon  the  earth,  and  again  steadily  repeats 
his  demand  why  one  should  respect  an  Unknowable 
from  whom  all  things, — all  horrors  and  agonies, — 
proceed. 

Ethically  we  are  required  to  do  no  evil  that  good 
may  come;  theologically,  to  worship  a  deity  who  is 
doing  just  that  all  the  time.  This  is  no  doubt  a  con- 
venient doctrine  for  the  Christian  nations  that  wish  to 
preserve  their  own  property  and  peace  at  home,  while 
acting  as  banditti  in  remote  continents  and  islands.  All 
such  atrocities  are  enacted  and  adopted  as  part  of  the 
providential    plan    of    spreading   the    Gospel,    latterly 


58  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

"civilisation" ;  but  it  is  very  certain  that  there  can  be 
no  such  thing  as  national  civilisation  until  evil  is  recog- 
nised as  evil,  good  as  good, — the  one  to  be  abhorred,  the 
other  loved, — and  no  deity  respected  whose  government 
would  wrong  a  worm. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

THE  BOOK  OF  PROVERBS  AND  THE  AVESTA. 

The  legend  of  the  Queen  of  Sheba  forms  not  only 
a  poetic  prologue  to  the  epical  tradition  of  Solomon's 
wisdom,  but  has  a  substantial  connexion  with  the  char- 
acter of  that  wisdom,  to  whose  final  personification  she 
contributed. 

The  corresponding  Oriental  stories  do  not  necessarily 
deprive  this  legend  of  historic  basis,  but  point  to  the 
region  of  this  "Queen  of  the  Seven  (Sheba)."  Those 
Oriental  pilgrimages  of  eminent  women  to  great  sages, 
however  invested  with  magnificence,  are  natural ;  even 
such  romances  could  not  have  been  invented  unless  in 
accordance  with  the  genius  of  the  country  in  which  they 
were  written.  There  is  no  antecedent  improbability 
that  a  queen,  belonging  to  a  region  in  which  her  sex 
enjoyed  large  freedom,  should  have  made  a  journey  to 
meet  Solomon. 

The  Abyssinians,  who  regard  her  as  the  founder  of 
their  dynasty,  at  the  same  time  show  how  little  char- 
acteristic of  their  country  the  legend  was,  by  their 
ancient  tradition,  that  it  was  the  Queen  of  Sheba  who 
provided  that  no  woman  should  sit  on  the  throne,  for- 
ever! They  claim  that  this  Queen  is  referred  to  in 
Psalm  xlv. — "At  thy  right  hand  doth  stand  the  Queen, 
in  gold  of  Ophir."  This  psalm  is  Solomonic,  but  the 
reference  is  no  doubt  to  the  Queen  Mother,  Bathsheba 

59 


6o  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

( who'Se  throne  was  on  his  "right  hand,"  i  Kings  ii.  19). 
Neither  Naamah  the  Ammonitess,  mother  of  Solomon's 
successor,  nor  the  daughter  of  Pharaoh,  who  was  his 
especially  distinguished  wife,  is  described  as  a  queen, 
— this  indeed  not  being  a  Jewish  title  for  a  king's  wife. 
The  psalm  indicates  much  glory  to  be  conferred  on  a 
woman  by  wedlock  with  Solomon,  but  not  that  he  was 
to  derive  any  honor  from  either  or  all  of  the  "three- 
score queens"  assigned  him  in  later  times  (Cant.  vi.  8). 
In  another  Solomonic  Psalm  (Ixxii.)  it  is  said: 

"The  kings  of  Tarshish  and  of  the  isles  shall  bring  presents : 
The  kings  of  Sheba  and  Seba  shall  offer  gifts, 
Yea,  all  kings  shall  fall  down  before  him." 

No  glory  is  here  supposed  to  be  derivable  from  a 
wom^an,  and  an  inventor  would  probably  have  merely 
devised  a  saga  on  the  last  of  the  lines  just  quoted,  which 
is  adapted  in  i  Kings  iv.  34,  to  Solomon's  wisdom,  or 
he  would  have  imagined  some  instance  of  a  particularly 
illustrious  monarch  coming  to  pay  homage  to  Solomon. 
That  the  only  example  particularized  is  that  of  a  woman 
carries  some  signs  of  reality. 

Assuming  that  there  was  ever  any  King  Solomon  at 
all,  this  Psalm  Ixxii.,  whose  Hebrew  title  is  "Of  Solo- 
mon," might  have  been  written  in  the  height  of  his 
reign.  The  title  of  "God"  given  him  in  Psalm  xlv.  is 
here  approximated  in  the  opening  line,  "Give  the  King 
thy  judgments,  O  Elohim,"  and  in  the  ascription  to 
him  of  such  virtues  and  such  beneficent  dominion, 
"from  the  river  (Euphrates)  to  the  ends  of  the  earth," 
without  any  further  reference  to  God,  that  an  indignant 
Jahvist  expands  the  doxology  (18,  19)  to  include  a 
reclamation  for  Jahveh.  The  ancient  lyric  closes  with 
verse  17,  which  says  of  Solomon: 


THE   BOOK   OF  PROVERBS.  6l 

"His  name  shall  endure  forever; 
His  name  shall  have  emanations  as  long  as  the  sun ; 
Men  shall  bless  themselves  in  him ; 
All  nations  shall  call  him  The  Happy." 

The  Jahvist  answers : 

"Blessed  be  Jahveh  Elohim,  the  Elohim  of  Israel, 
Who  alone  doeth  wondrous  things, 
And  blessed  be  His  glorious  name  forever ; 
And  let  the  whole  earth  be  filled  with  His  glory. 
Amen,  and  Amen." 

Now  in  this  beautiful  poem  (omitting  the  doxology) 
the  elation  is  especially  concerning  some  connexion  with 
Sheba.  In  verse  lo  it  is  said  "The  kings  of  Sheba 
and  Seba  shall  offer  gifts";  in  verse  15,  "To  him  shall 
be  given  of  the  gold  of  Sheba."  These  lines  might 
have  been  written  on  the  announcement  of  a  royal  visit, 
or  meeting,  which  had  not  mentioned  a  queen.  But 
what  country  is  indicated  by  Sheba  (the  Seven)  ?  In 
India  there  are  seven  holy  rivers,  and  seven  holy  Rishis, 
represented  by  the  seven  stars  of  the  Great  Bear.  But 
these  corresf>ond  with  the  Seven  Rivers  of  Persia 
which  enter  into  the  Persian  Gulf,  in  the  Avesta  called 
Satavsesa,  a  star-deity.     In  the  Yir  Yast  9  it  is  said : 

"Satavsesa  makes  those  waters  flow  down  to  the  seven 
Karshvares  of  the  earth,  and  when  he  has  arrived  down 
there  he  stands,  beautiful,  spreading  ease  and  joy  on  the  fer- 
tile countries,  thinking  in  himself,  'How  shall  the  countries 
of  the  Aryas  grow  fertile?'  " 

As  there  are  seven  heavens,  there  are  seven  earths 
(Karshvares),  and  these,  as  already  shown  {ante  II.),      ^ 
are  presided  over  by  the  "seven  infinite  ones"  (  Amesha-     1 
Spentas).     Of  these  seven  the  first  is  Ahura  Mazda 
himself,  and  of  the  others  only  one  is  female — Armaiti,  ;  ^ 
genius  of  the  earth.     Of  this  wonderful  and  beautiful  [/ 


62  aOLOMONIC   LITERATURE. 

personification  more  must  be  said  presently,  but  it  may 
be  said  here  that  Armaiti  was  the  spouse  of  Ahura 
Mazda,  and  Queen  of  the  Seven, — the  seven  Ameshi- 
Spentas  who  preside  respectively  over  the  seven  karsh- 
vares  of  the  earth. 

The  function  of  Armaiti  being  to  win  men  from 
nomadic  life  and  warfare,  to  foster  peace  and  tillage, 
she  was  a  type  of  "the  eternal  feminine" ;  and  such  an 
ideal  could  hardly  have  been  developed  except  in  a 
region  where  women  were  held  in  great  honour,  nor 
could  it  fail  to  produce  women  worthy  of  honor.  That 
such  was  the  fact  in  Zoroastrian  Persia  is  proved  by 
many  passages  in  the  Avesta,  wherein  we  find  emi- 
nent women  among  the  first  disciples  of  Zoroaster. 
There  is  a  litany  to  the  Fravashis,  or  ever  living  and 
working  spirits,  of  twenty-seven  women,  whose  names 
are  given  in  Favardin  Vast  (139-142),  Among  these 
was  the  Queen  Hutaosa,  converted  by  Zoroaster,  the 
wife  of  King  Vistaspa,  the  Constantine  of  Zoroastrian- 
ism.  Hutaosa  was  naturally  a  visible  and  royal  repre- 
sentative of  Armaiti,  "Queen  of  the  Seven,"  a  princess 
of  peace,  a  patroness  of  culture,  to  be  imitated  by  other 
Persian  queens. 

That  the  sanctity  of  "seven"  was  impressed  on  all 
usages  of  life  in  Persia  is  shown  in  the  story  of  Esther. 
King  Ahasuerus  feasts  on  the  seventh  day,  has  seven 
chamberlains,  and  consults  the  seven  princes  of  Media 
and  Persia  ("wise  men  which  knew  the  times"). 
When  Esther  finds  favor  of  the  King  above  all  other 
maidens,  as  successor  to  deposed  Vashti,  she  is  at  once 
given  "the  seven  maidens,  which  were  meet  to  be  given 
her,  out  of  the  King's  house ;  and  he  removed  her  and 
her  maidens  to  the  best  place  of  the  house  of  the 


THE   HOOK  OF  PROVERBS.  63 

women."  Esther  was  thus  a  Queen  of  the  Seven, — of 
Sheba,  in  Hebrew, — and  although  this  was  some  cen- 
turies after  Solomon's  time,  there  is  every  reason  to 
suppose  that  the  Zoroastrian  social  usages  in  Persia 
prevailed  in  Solomon's  time.  At  any  rate  we  find  in 
the  ancient  Psalm  Ixxii.,  labeled  "Of  Solomon,"  Kings 
of  Sheba  (the  Seven)  mentioned  along  with  the  Eu- 
phrates, chief  of  the  Seven  Rivers  (Zend  Hapta- 
heando)  ;  and  remembering  also  the  "sevens"  of  Esther, 
we  may  safely  infer  that  a  "Queen  of  Sheba"  connoted  a 
Persian  or  Median  Queen. 

We  may  also  fairly  infer,  from  the  emphasis  laid  on 
"sevens"  in  Esther,  in  connexion  with  her  wit  and  wis- 
dom, that  a  Queen  of  the  Seven  had  come  to  mean  a 
wise  woman,  whether  of  Jewish  or  Persian  origin,  a 
woman  instructed  among  the  Magi,  and  enjoying  the 
freedom  allowed  by  them  to  women.  There  is  no  geo- 
graphical difficulty  in  supposing  that  a  Persian  queen 
like  Hutaosa,  a  devotee  of  Armaiti  (Queen  of  the 
Seven,  genius  of  Peace  and  Agriculture),  might  not 
have  heard  of  Salem,  the  City  of  Peace,  of  its  king 
whose  title  was  the  Peaceful  (Solomon),  and  visited 
that  city, — though  of  course  the  location  of  the  meeting 
may  have  been  only  a  later  tradition.* 

The  object  of  the  Queen's  visit  to  Solomon  was  "to 
test  him  with  hard  questions"  as  to  his  wisdom.  It 
was  not  to  discover  or  pay  court  to  his  wisdom,  though 
he  received  from  her  "of  the  gold  of  Sheba"  spoken 
of  in  the  psalm.  As  a  royal  missionary  of  the  Magi  her 
ability  and  title  to  prove  Solomon's  knowledge,  and  de- 

*  It  may  be  mentioned  that  the  Moslem  name  for  the  Queen  of  Sheba  is 
Balkis,  which  points  to  the  great  Zoroastrian  city  of  Balkn,  near  which  are 
the  Seven  Rivers  (  Saba'  Sin  ),  whose  confluence  makes  tlie  Balkh  (Oxus), 
with  whose  sands  gold  is  mingled.    (Cf.  Psalm  Ixxii.  15.) 


64  SOLOMONIC   LITERATURE. 

cide  on  it,  are  assumed  in  the  narrative  (i  Kings  x.). 
Several  sentences  in  her  tribute  to  Solomon's  "wisdom 
and  goodness"  recall  passages  in  the  Psalm  (Ixxii.). 
There  is  here  an  intimation  of  some  prevailing  belief 
that  Solomon's  wisdom  was  harmonious  with  the 
Zoroastrian  wisdom.  Whether  the  visit  of  the  Queen 
be  mythical  or  not,  and  even  if  both  she  and  Solomon 
are  regarded  as  mythical,  the  legend  would  none  the 
less  be  an  expression  of  a  popular  perception  of  ele- 
ments not  Jewish  in  Solomonic  literature. 

Of  course  only  Biblical  mythology  is  here  referred 
to.  The  Moslem  mythology  of  Solomon  and  the 
Queen  (Balkis)  has  taken  from  the  Avesta  Wise  King 
Yima's  potent  ring,  and  his  power  over  demons,  and 
other  fables,  in  most  instances  to  be  noted  only  as  an 
unconscious  recognition  of  a  certain  general  accent 
common  to  the  narratives  of  the  two  great  kings.  Yet 
it  can  hardly  be  said  that  the  stories  of  Yima  in  the 
Avesta  and  of  Solomon  in  the  Bible  are  entirely  inde- 
pendent of  each  other, — as  in  Yima's  being  given  by 
the  deity  a  sort  of  choice  and  selecting  the  political 
career,  Ahura  Mazda  saying:  "Since  thou  wanted  not 
to  be  the  preacher  and  the  bearer  of  my  law,  then  make 
thou  my  worlds  thrive,  make  my  worlds  increase : 
undertake  thou  to  nourish,  to  rule,  and  to  watch  over 
my  world."  Ahura  Mazda  requests  Yima  to  build  an 
enclosure  for  the  preservation  of  the  seeds  of  life 
(men,  animals,  and  plants)  during  a  succession  of  fatal 
winters,  and  some  of  the  particulars  resemble  both  the 
legend  of  the  ark  and  that  of  building  the  temple. 
Yima  was,  like  Solomon,  a  priest-king  (he  is  also  called 
"the  good  shepherd")  ;  he  was,  like  Solomon,  beset 
by  satans  (daevas),  and  after  a  reign  of  fabulous  pros- 


THE  BOOK   OF  PROVERBS.  65 

perity  he  finally  fell  by  uttering  falsehood.  What  the 
falsehood  was  is  told  in  the  Bundahis :  tlie  good  part  of 
creation  was  ascribed  to  the  evil  creator. 

Several  other  heroes  of  the  Avesta  have  assisted  in 
the  idealisation  of  Solomon,  notably  King  Vistaspa, 
already  mentioned.  Like  Solomon,  he  is  famous  for 
his  horses  and  his  wealth.  Zoroaster  exhorts  him, 
"All  night  long  address  the  heavenly  Wisdom ;  all 
night  long  call  for  the  Wisdom  that  will  keep  thee 
awake."  From  Zoroaster  the  "Young  King"  learned 
"how  the  worlds  were  arranged";  and  he  is  advised 
"have  no  bad  priests  or  unfriendly  priests." 

It  is  now  necessary  to  inquire  whether  there  is  any- 
thing corresponding  to  these  facts  in  the  ancient  writ- 
ings ascribed  to  Solomon.  The  lower  criticism  has  lit- 
tle liking  for  Solomon,  and  makes  but  a  feeble  struggle 
for  the  genuineness  of  his  canonical  books  against  the 
higher  criticism,  which  forbids  us  to  assign  any  word 
to  Solomon.  But  these  higher  critics  acquired  their 
learning  while  lower  critics,  and  it  is  difficult  to  repress 
an  occasional  suspicion  of  the  survival  of  an  uncon- 
scious prejudice  against  the  royal  secularist,  apparent  in 
their  unwillingness  to  a<lmit  any  participation  at  all 
of  Solcfmon  in  the  wisdom  books.  Is  this  quite  reason- 
able? 

It  is  of  course  clear  that  Solomon  cannot  be  described 
as  th"e  author  of  any  book  or  compilation  that  we  now 
possess.  But  neither  did  Boccacio  write  Shakespeare's 
"Cymbeline,"  nor  Dryden's  "Cymon  and  Iphigenia," 
nor  the  apologue  of  the  Ring  in  Lessing's  "Nathan  the 
Wise,"  nor  Tennyson's  "Falcon,"  all  of  which,  how- 
ever, are  his  tales.  I  select  Boccacio  for  the  illustra- 
tion because  his  -defiance  of  "the  moralities"  led  to  his 


66  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

suppression  in  most  European  homes,  thus  facilitating 
the  utiHzation  of  his  ideas  by  others  who  derive  credit 
from  his  genius,  this  being  precisely  what  might  be 
expected  in  the  case  of  the  great  secularist  of  Jerusalem. 
For  no  one  can  carefully  study  the  Book  of  Proverbs 
without  perceiving  that  a  large  number  of  them  never 
could  have  been  popular  proverbs,  but  are  terse  little 
essays  and  fables,  some  of  them  highly  artistic,  which 
indicate  the  presence  at  some  remote  epoch  of  a  man 
of  genius.  And  I  cannot  conceive  any  fair  reason  for 
setting  aside  the  tradition  of  many  centuries  which 
steadily  united  the  name  of  Solomon  with  much  of  this 
kind  of  writing,  or  for  believing  that  every  sentence  he 
ever  uttered  or  wrote  is  lost. 

It  would  require  a  separate  work  to  pick  out  from 
the  two  Anthologies  ascribed  to  Solomon  (the  First, 
Proverbs  x.  i-xxii.  i6;  the  Second,  xxv-xxix),  the 
more  elaborate  thoughts,  and  piece  together  those  that 
represent  one  mind,  even  were  I  competent  for  that 
work.  But  this  fine  task  awaits  some  scholar,  and,  in- 
deed, the  whole  Book  of  Proverbs  needs  a  more  thor- 
ough treatment  in  this  direction  than  it  has  received. 

Of  the  last  seven  chapters  of  the  Book  of  Proverbs, 
one  (xxx.),  containing  the  fragments  of  Agur  and  his 
angry  antagonist,  has  been  (vii.)  considered.  Chapters 
XXV.,  xxvi.,  xxvii.,  and  xxxi.  10-31,  may  with  but 
little  elimination  fairly  come  under  their  general  head- 
ing, "These  are  also  proverbs  of  Solomon  which  the 
men  of  Hezekiah,  King  of  Judah,  copied  out."  Chap- 
ters xxviii.  and  xxix.,  with  their  flings  at  princes  and 
wealth,  contain  many  Jahvist  insertions.  The  admir- 
able verses  in  xxiv.  23-34,  and  those  in  xxxi.  10-29,  3i> 


THE   BOOK  OF  PROVERBS.  67 

represent  the  high  secular  ethics  of  the  Solomonic 
school. 

The  verses  last  mentioned  (exaltation  of  the  virtuous 
woman)  are,  curiously  enough,  blended  with  "The 
words  of  King  Lemuel,  the  oracle  which  his  mother 
taught  him."  The  ancient  Rabbins  identify  Lemuel 
with  Solomon,  and  relate  that  when,  on  the  day  of  the 
dedication  of  the  temple,  he  married  Pharaoh's  daugh- 
ter, he  drank  too  much  at  the  wedding  feast,  and  slept 
until  the  fourth  hour  of  the  next  day,  with  the  keys 
of  the  temple  under  his  pillow.  Whereupon  his  mother, 
Bathsheba,  entered  and  reproved  him  with  this  oracle. 
Bathsheba's  own  amour  with  Solomon's  father  does 
not  appear  to  have  excited  any  rabbinical  suspicion 
that  the  description  of  the  virtuous  wife  with  which 
the  Book  of  Proverbs  closes  is  hardly  characteristic 
of  the  woman.  She  was  the  "Queen  Mother,"  a  part 
of  the  divine  scheme,  her  conception  of  the  builder  of 
the  temple  immaculate,  predetermined  in  the  counsels 
of  Jahveh. 

The  first  nine  verses  of  this  last  chapter  in  the  Book 
of  Proverbs  certainly  appear  as  if  written  at  a  later 
day,  perhaps  even  so  late  as  the  third  century  before 
our  era,  and  aimed  at  the  Jahvist  tradition  of  Solomon. 
Lemuel  seems  to  be  allegorical,  and  we  here  have  an 
early  instance  of  the  mysterious  disinclination  to  men- 
tion the  great  King's  name.  1 1  is  name,  Renan  assures 
us,  is  hidden  under  "Koheleth,"  but  he  is  not  named 
in  the  text  of  that  book  or  even  in  that  of  the  "Wisdom 
of  Solomon."  In  Ezra  v.  1 1  the  mention  of  the  temple 
as  the  house  "which  a  great  king  of  Israel  buildcd  and 
finished"  seems  to  indicate  a  purposed  suppression  of 


68  SOLOMONIC   LITERATURE. 

Solomon's  name,  which  continued  (Jeremiah  Hi.  20  is 
barely  an  exception)  until  this  silence  was  broken  by 
Jesus  Ben  Sira,  and  again  by  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 

The  removal  of  verse  30  (Proverbs  xxxi.),  clearly 
a  late  Jahvist  protest,  leaves  the  praise  of  the  virtuous 
woman  with  which  the  book  closes  without  any  sugges- 
tion of  piety..  Yet  we  find  here  that  "her  price  is  far 
above  rubies,"  "she  openeth  her  mouth  with  wisdom," 
and  one  or  two  other  tropes  which  probably  united 
with  some  in  the  First  Anthology  to  evolve  more  dis- 
tinctly the  goddess  Wisdom.  Some  sentences  of  the 
First  Anthology  grew  like  mustard  seed.  "Wisdom 
resteth  in  the  heart  of  him  who  hath  understanding" 
(Proverbs  xiv.  33),  reappears  in  i  Kings  iii.  12,  and 
in  X.  24  it  is  definitely  stated  that  it  was  the  wisdom 
which  God  had  put  into  Solomon's  heart  that  made 
all  the  earth  seek  his  presence.  It  was  a  miracle  they 
went  to  see ;  the  glory  is  not  that  of  Solomon,  but  that 
of  God.* 

The  nearest  approach  to  a  personification  of  Wisdom 
in  the  First  Anthology  is  Proverb  xx.  15:  "There  is 
gold  and  abundance  of  pearls,  but  the  lips  of  knowledge 
are  a  (more)  precious  jewel."  This  expands  in  Job 
to  a  long  list  of  precious  things — gold,  coral,  topaz, 
pearls — ^all  surpassed  by  Wisdom,  and  the  similitudes 
journey  on  to  the  parables  of  Jesus,  wherein  the  woman 
sweeps  for  the  lost  silver,  and  the  man  sells  all  he  has 
for  the  pearl  of  price.     This,  however,  was  a  compara- 

*  In  many  places  in  the  Avesta  (e.  g.,  Sirozah  i.  2)  a  distinction  is  drawn 
between  "the  heavenly  wisdom  made  by  Mazda,  and  the  acquired  wisdom 
through  the  ear  made  by  Mazda."  Darmesteter  says  :  "  Asnya  khratu,  the 
inhiorn  intellect,  intuition,  contrasted  with  gaosho-sruta  khratu,  the  knowl- 
edge acquired  by  hearing  and  learning.  There  is  between  the  two  nearly  the 
same  relation  as  between  the  paravidya  and  aparavidya  in  Brahmanism,  the 
former  reaching  Brahma  in  se  (parabrahma),  the  latter  sabdabrahma,  the 
word-brahma  (Brahma  as  taught  and  revealed)."  {Sacred  Books  of  the  East, 
Vol.  XXIII.,  p.  4.) 


THE  BOOK  OF  PROVERBS.  69 

tively  simple  and  human  development.  And  the  first " 
complct-e  personification  of  Wisdom,  growing  out  of 
"the  lips  of  knowledge,"  and  perhaps  influenced  by  the 
portraiture  of  "the  virtuous  woman,"  is  an  expression 
of  philosophical  and  poetic  religion.  This  personifi- 
cation is  in  Proverbs  viii.  and  ix.,  which  are  evidently 
far  more  ancient  than  the  seven  chapters  preceding 
them,  and  no  doubt  constitute  the  original  editorial 
Prologue  to  the  so-called  "Proverbs  of  Solomon,"  with 
the  exception  of  some  Jahvist  cant  about  "the  fear  of 
Jahveh."  We  hear  from  "the  lips  of  knowledge"  a 
reaffirmation  of  th'e  "excellent  things"  said  in  the 
Anthologies  about  the  superiority  of  Wisdom  to  gems. 
(The  word  "ancient"  given  by  the  revisers  in  the 
margin  to  viii.  18  may  possibly  signify  the  antiquity  of 
the  Anthologies  when  this  Prologue  was  written.)  The 
scholarly  writer  of  the  Prologue  had  closely  studied  the 
ancient  proverbs,  and  occasionally  gives  good  hints  for 
the  interpretation  of  some  that  puzzle  modern  trans- 
lators. Thus  Wisdom,  in  describing  herself  as  "sport- 
ing" (viii.  30),  indicates  the  right  meaning  of  x.  23 
to  be  that  while  the  fool  finds  his  sport  in  mischief,  the 
wise  man  finds  his  sport  with  wisdom.  (This  proverb 
may  also  have  suggested  the  laughter  of  the  "virtuous 
woman"  in  xxxi.  25.) 

In  viii.  22-31,  Wisdom  becomes  more  than  a  personi- 
fication, and  takes  her  place  in  cosmogony.  This  pas- 
sage, which  contains  germs  of  much  of  our  latter-day 
theology,  must  be  quoted  in  full,  and  comparatively 
studied.     Wisdom  speaks : 

22.  Jahveh  acquired  me  in  the  outset  of  his  way, 
Before  his  works,  from  of  old. 

23.  From  eternity  was  I  existent, 
From  the  first,  before  the  earth. 


70  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

24.  When  no  deep  seas  I  was  brought  forward, 
When  no  fountains  abounding  with  water. 

25.  Before  the  mountains  were  fixed, 
Before  the  hills,  was  I  brought  forward : 

26.  When  he  had  not  fashioned  the  earth  and  the  fields, 
And  the  consummate  part  of  the  dust  of  the  world. 

27.  When  he  established  the  heavens,  I  was  there ; 
When  he  set  a  boundary  on  the  face  of  the  deep ; 

28.  When  he  made  firm  the  clouds  above ; 

When  the  fountains  of  the  deep  became  strong ; 

29.  When  he  gave  to  the  sea  its  limit, 

That  the  waters  should  not  pass  over  their  coast; 
When  he  marked  out  the  foundation  pillars  of  the  earth: 

30.  Then  was  I  near  him,  as  a  master  builder : 
And  I  was  his  delight  continually, 
Sporting  before  him  at  all  times ; 

31.  Sporting  in  the  habitable  part  of  his  earth, 
And  my  delight  was  with  the  sons  of  men. 

Let  us  compare  with  this  picture  of  Wisdom  that  of 
Armaiti,  genius  of  the  Earth,  in  the  sacred  Zoroastrian 
books.  In  the  Gatha  Ahunavaiti,  7,  it  is  said:  "To 
succor  this  hfe  (to  increase  it)  Armaiti  came  with 
weaUh,  and  good  and  true  mind :  she,  the  everlasting 
one,  created  the  material  world ;  but  the  soul,  as  to 
time,  the  first  cause  among  created  beings,  was  with 
thee"  (Ahura  Mazda).  Thus,  like  Wisdom,  Armaiti 
is  everlasting:  she  was  not  created,  but  "acquired," 
by  the  deity.  When  Ahura  Mazda,  as  chief  of  the 
seven  Amesha-spentas,  ideally  designed  the  world,  she 
gave  it  reality,  as  master-builder,  and,  like  Wisdom, 
hewed  out  the  foundation  pillars  he  had  marked  out, — 
namely,  the  Seven  Karshvares  of  the  earth.  The  open- 
ing lines  of  Proverbs  ix.  read  almost  like  a  quotation 
from  some  Gatha : 

"Wisdom  hath  builded  her  house. 
She  hath  hewn  out  her  seven  pillars." 


THE   BOOK   OF  PROVERBS.  7 1 

Like  Wisdom,  Armaiti  was  the  continual  delight  of 
the  supreme  God.  In  an  ancient  Pali  MS.,  it  is  said 
that  Zoroaster  saw  the  supreme  being  in  heaven,  with 
Armaiti  seated  at  his  side,  her  hand  caressing  his  neck, 
and  said :  "Thou,  who  art  Ahura  Mazda,  turnest  not 
thy  eyes  away  from  her,  and  she  turns  not  away  from 
thee."  Ahura  Mazda  tells  Zoroaster  that  she  is  "the 
house  mistress  of  my  heaven,  and  mother  of  the 
creatures."*  Like  Wisdom,  Armaiti  has  joy  in  the 
"habitable  part"  of  the  earth,  and  the  "sons  of  men," 
from  whom  she  receives  especial  delight  ("the  greatest 
joy"),  are  enumerated  in  the  Vendidad,  also  the  places 
in  which  she  has  such  delight.  They  are  the  faithful 
who  cultivate  the  earth  morally  and  physically,  and  the 
places  so  watered  or  drained,  and  homes  "with  wife, 
children,  and  good  herds  within." 

Armaiti  has  a  daughter,  "the  good  Ashi,"  whose 
function  is  to  pass  between  earth  and  heaven  and  bring 
the  heavenly  wisdom  (Vohu-Mano,  "Good  Thought") 
to  mankind.  The  soul  of  the  world  thus  reaches,  and 
is  reached  by,  heaven,  and  Armaiti  thus  becomes  a  per- 
sonification of  the  combined  human  and  superhuman 
Wisdom  ascribed  to  great  men,  such  as  Solomon.  At 
the  same  time  the  "sons  of  men"  are  all  the  children  of 
Armaiti,  and  she  finds  delight  among  them.  Even  the 
rudest  are  restrained  by  her  culture.  "By  the  eyes  of 
Armaiti  the  (demonic)  ruffian  was  made  powerless," 
says  Zoroaster.  The  spirit  of  the  Earth,  laughing  with 
her  flowers  and  fruits,  survived  in  Persia  the  sombre 
reign  of  Islam,  to  sing  in  the  quatrain  of  Omar  Khay- 
yam:    "I  asked  my  fair  bride — the  World — what  was 

*  Sacred  Books  of  the  East.  Vol.  X\'III.  Pahl.ivi  Texts  tr.  by  West. 
The  text  quoted  above  (from  p.  415)  is  of  uncertain  ape,  but  it  is  harmonious 
with  the  more  ancient  scriptures,  and  no  doubt  compiled  from  them. 


72  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

her  dower :  she  answered,  'My  dower  is  in  the  joy  of  thy 
heart.'  " 

"The  sons  of  men"  is  not  an  Avestan  phrase,  for  to 
Armaiti  her  daughters  are  as  dear  as  her  sons,  but  we 
find  in  the  Vendidad  "the  seeds  of  men  and  women." 
These  are  sprung  from  those  who  were  selected  for 
preservation  in  the  Vara,  or  enclosure,  of  the  first  man, 
Yimi,  made  by  direction  of  the  deity,  when  the  evil 
powers  brought  fatal  winters  on  the  world.  The  de- 
formed, diseased,  wicked,  were  excluded ;  the  chosen 
people  were  those  formed  of  "the  best  of  the  earth." 
From  long  and  prosperous  life  on  earth,  the  Amesha  of 
immortality,  the  good  angel  of  death,  conducted  them 
to  eternal  happiness ;  they  are  the  immortals,  children 
of  the  demons  being  mortals.  There  was  something 
corresponding  to  this  in  the  Jewish  idea  of  their  being 
a  chosen  people,  as  distinguished  from  the  Gentile 
world  (see  Deut.  xxxii.  8),  and  no  doubt  the  phrase 
"sons  of  men"  represented  a  divine  dignity  afterwards 
expressed  in  the  title,  "Son  of  Man."* 

The  Solomonic  hymn  of  Wisdom  at  the  creation 
(Proverbs  viii.  22-31)  contains  other  Avestan  phrases. 
"From  eternity  was  I  existent,"  recalls  Zervan  akarana, 

*  Among  the  cultured  Jews,  just  before  our  era,  there  was  a  recognition 
of  the  equality  of  men,  as  is  seen  in  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon  vii.  i,  "I  myself 
am  a  mortal  man,  like  to  all,  and  the  offspring  of  him  that  was  first  made  of 
the  earth."  Solomon  ascribes  his  superiority  only  to  the  divine  gift  of  wis- 
dom. This  idea  of  human  equality  was  in  the  preaching  of  John  the  Baptist 
(Matt.  iii.  9) — probably  a  Parsi  heretic,  at  any  rate  an  apostle  of  purifying 
water  and  fire — and  it  underlay  the  title  of  Jesus,  "Son  of  Man."  That  in 
Armaiti  there  was  a  conception  of  a  humanity  not  represented  byrace  but  by 
character  and  culture  will  appear  by  a  comparison  with  the  Vedic  Aramati, 
a  bride  of  Agni  (Fire)  to  whom  she  is  mythologically  related,  on  the  one 
hand,  and  on  the  other  to  the  spirit  of  the  earth  who  came  to  the  assistance 
of  Buddha.  This  story,  related  in  many  forms,  is  that  when  the  evil  Mara, 
having  tempted  Buddha  in  vain,  brought  his  hosts  to  terrify  him,  ail  friends 
forsooK  him,  and  no  angel  came  to  help  him,  but  the  spirit  of  the  earth, 
which  he  had  watered,  arose  as  a  fair  woman,  who  from  her  long  hair  wrung 
out  the  water  Buddha  had  bestowed  which  became  a  flood  and  swept  away 
the  evil  host.  Watering  the  Earth  is  especially  mentioned  in  the  Avesta  as 
that  which  makes  her  rejoice,  and  marks  the  holy  man. 


THE  BOOK  OF  PROVERBS.  73 

"boundless  time,"  and  verse  26,  relating  to  the  earth, 
is  still  more  significant :  in  it  "the  sum"  has  been  sug- 
gested by  the  Revisers  for  (E.  V.)  "the  highest  part" 
(of  the  earth),  but  in  either  rendering  it  is  near  to  the 
Avestan  phrase,  "the  best  of  Armaiti"  (Earth).  This 
phrase  is  reproduced  in  the  Bundahis  (xv.  6),  where 
the  creator,  Ahura  Mazda,  says  to  the  first  pair,  "You 
are  men  (cf.  Genesis  v.  2,  he  'called  their  name  Adam'), 
you  are  the  ancestry  of  the  world,  and  you  are  created 
the  best  of  Armaiti  (the  Earth)  by  me."  (West's 
translation.  Sacred  Books  of  the  East.  Vol.  V.,  p. 
54,  n.  2.)  The  word  for  Earth  in  Proverb  26  is 
adamah,  and  in  the  Septuagint  (various  reading)  it  is 
actually  translated  ApiiacO,  —  Armaiti's  very  name.  We 
may  thus  find  in  Proverb  26  (viii.)  the  idea  of  Omar 
Khayyam,  "Man  is  the  whole  creation's  summary." 

Whether  there  is  any  connexion  between  the  Sanskrit 
Adima  and  Hebrew  Adam  is  still  under  philological 
discussion :  probably  not,  for  their  meaning  is  differ- 
ent, Adima  meaning  "the  first,"  and  Adam  relating  to 
the  material  out  of  which  he  is  said  to  have  been  formed. 
Adam  is  derived  from  Adamah :  after  all,  man  came 
from  the  great  Woman — "the  Mother  of  all  living."* 
Adamah,  according  to  Sale,  is  a  Persian  word  meaning 
"red  earth,"  and  in  Hebrew  also  it  connotes  redness. 
Armaiti  might  have  acquired  an  epithet  of  ruddiness 
from  her  union  with  Atar,  the  genius  of  Fire  (Fargard 
xviii.  51,  52.  Darmesteter.  Introduction,  iv.  30).  In 
Hebrew   adamah   combines   three   senses — a   fortress, 

♦Even  in  the  legend  in  Genesis  ii.  the  "rib"  is  a  misunderstanding. 
Eve  (Chavah)  was  the  feiiiaie  side  of  Adam,  wliich  was  the  name  of  both 
male  and  female  (Gen.  v.  2).  The  "rib"  story  arose  no  doubt  from  the 
supposition  that  Adam's  allusion  to  "bone  of  my  bone"  had  something  to 
do  with  it.  But  Adam's  phrase  is  an  idiom  meaning  only  "Thou  art  the 
same  as  I  am."    (Max  Miiller's  Science  of  Religion,  p.  47.) 


I\ 


74  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

redness,  and  cultivated  ground.  In  Proverbs  (viii. 
31)  we  have  the  fortress  or  enclosure,  "the  habitable 
part  of  his  earth";  in  verse  26  the  cultivated  earth, 
"the  highest  part  (or  sum,  or  best)  of  the  dust  of  the 
earth,"  The  "delight"  in  which  Wisdom  dwelt  (verse 
30)  is  Eden,  the  garden  of  delight,  and  in  verse  31  this 
delight  associated  with  the  human  children  of  the  earth. 
Here  we  have  the  elements  of  the  narrative  of  the  cre- 
ation of  Adam  in  Genesis,  and  of  the  garden,  though 
clearly  not  derived  from  Genesis.  And  in  Genesis 
we  find  something  like  a  personification  of  the  earth, 
as  in  ix.  13,  "It  (the  rainbow)  shall  be  a  token  of  a 
covenant  between  me  and  the  earth." 

The  idea  of  a  creative  deity  requiring,  as  in  Proverbs 
viii.,  the  assistance  of  another  personal  being,  is  for- 
eign to  Jahvism,  but  it  is  of  the  very  substance  of 
Zoroastrianism,  and  it  reappears  in  the  Elohism  of 
Genesis.  Another  important  and  fundamental  fact  is, 
that  we  find  in  the  prologue  to  Proverbs  a  deity  con- 
tending against  something,  circumscribing  forces  that 
need  control,  not  of  his  creation.  It  is  plain  that  the 
conception  of  monotheistic  omnipotence  had  not  yet 
been  formed.  There  are  higher  and  lower  parts  of  the 
earth. 

Although  there  is  no  evidence  that  any  such  compila- 
tion as  our  "Genesis"  existed  at  the  time  when  the  pro- 
logue (viii.,  ix.)  to  the  "Proverbs  of  Solomon"  was 
composed,  the  Elohistic  opening  of  Genesis,  especially 
in  its  original  form,  harmonises  with  the  Parsi  conflict 
between  Light  and  Darkness. 

"When  of  old  Elohim  separated  heaven  and  earth — when 
the  earth  was  desolation  and  emptiness— darkness  on  the  face 


THE  BOOK  OF  PROVERBS.  75 

of  the  deep,  and  the  spirit  of  Elohim  brooding  on  the  face  of 
the  waters, — Elohim  said,  Be  Light;   Light  was."* 

The  spirit  of  God  "brooding"  over  the  waters  (Gene- 
sis i.  i)  may  be  identified  with  the  Wisdom  of  Prov- 
erbs ix.  I,  who  "builds  her  house"  as  the  Elohim  built 
the  universe,  and  "hath  hewn  out  her  seven  pillars" 
like  a  true  Armaiti.  "Queen  of  the  Seven."  She  is  the 
Spirit  of  Light.  And  perhaps  the  darkness  that  was 
on  the  face  of  the  abyss  suggested  the  antagonistic  per- 
sonification in  the  next  chapter  (ix.)  named  by  Pro- 
fessor Cheyne  "Dame  Folly."  Wisdom,  having  builded 
her  house,  spread  her  table,  mingled  her  wine,  sends 
forth  her  maidens  to  invite  the  simple  to  forsake  Folly, 
enjoy  her  feast,  and  "live."  Dame  Folly, — who  though 
she  has  "a  seat  in  high  places"  is  "silly," — clamours  to 
every  wayfarer  that  even  the  bread  and  water  of  her 
table,  being  surreptitious,  are  sweeter  than  the  luxuries 
and  wane  offered  by  Wisdom.  This  appears  to  be  the 
meaning  of  Dame  Folly's  somewhat  obscure  invitation. 

"  'Waters  stolen  are  sweet  I 
Forbidden  bread  is  pleasant !' 
He  knoweth  not  her  phantoms  are  there, 
That  her  guests  are  in  the  underworld." 

*  These  two,  darkness  and  tlie  brooding  spirit,  may  seem  to  be  related  to 
the  raven  and  the  dove  sent  out  of  the  ark  ny  Noah,  but  this  account  only 
indicates  the  origin  of  the  story  of  the  Deluge;  for  the  raven  was  in  Persia 
an  emblem  of  victory,  and  in  the  Biblical  legend  it  was  the  only  living  creature 
that  defied  the  Deluge  and  was  able  to  do  without  the  ark.  In  the  corres- 
ponding legend  in  the  Avesta,  where  King  Yima  makes  an  enclosure  (Vara) 
for  the  shelter  of  the  seeds  of  all  living  creatures,  the  heavenly  bird  Kar- 
shipta  brings  info  that  refuge  the  law  of  Ahura  Mazda,  and  as  the  song  of 
this  bird  was  the  voice  of  Ahura  Mazda,  it  may  have  been  an  idealised  dove 
("  For  lo,  the  winter  is  past, 

The  rain  is  over  and  gone  .... 
The  voice  of  the  turtle  is  heard  in  the  land.") 
But  when  Yima  lent  himself  to  the  lies  of  the  Evil  One  his  (Yima's)  "glory" 
left  him  in  the  form  of  a  raven  (Zambad  Vast,  36).    But  both  the  raven  and 
the  dove  were  tribal  ensigns,  and  it  is  not  safe  to  build  too  much  on  what  is 
said  of  them  in  Eastern  and  Oriental  books. 


76  SOLOMONIC   LITERATURE. 

In  this  contrast  between  Wisdom  inviting  all  to  enter 
her  house,  drink  her  wine,  and  "live,"  and  Folly  inviting 
them  to  her  "Sheol,"  we  have  nearly  a  quatrain  of  Omar 
Khayyam  :  "Since  from  the  beginning  of  life  to  its  end 
there  is  for  thee  only  this  earth,  at  least  live  as  one  who 
is  on  it  and  not  under  it." 

In  the  Avesta  the  good  and  wise  Mother  Earth 
(Armaiti)  is  opposed  by  a  malign  female  "Drug" 
(demoness),  whose  paramours  are  described  in  Far- 
gard  xviii.  (Vendidad).  These  two  are  fairly  repre- 
sented by  Wisdom  and  Folly  as  personified  in  Proverbs 
viii.  and  ix. 

The  Jahvist  who  in  Proverbs  i.  1-7  (excepting  the 
first  six  verses)  undertakes  to  edit  the  original  and 
ancient  editor  as  well  as  Solomon,  presents  the  curious 
case  of  one  of  Dame  Folly's  phantoms  interpreting  the 
words  of  Wisdom's  guests.  Unable  to  comprehend 
their  portraiture  of  Dame  Folly,  he  imagines  that  the 
allusion  must  be  to  harlotry,  admonishes  his  "son"  that 
"Jahveh  giveth  wisdom,"  which  among  other  things 
will  "deliver  thee  from  the  strange  woman,"  whose 
"house  sinketh  down  to  the  underworld  and  her  paths 
unto  phantoms."  Which  recalls  the  pious  lady  who  on 
hearing  her  ritualistic  pastor  accused  by  a  dissenter  of 
leanings  toward  the  Scarlet  Woman,  anxiously  in- 
quired of  a  friend  whether  she  had  ever  heard  any  scan- 
dal connected  with  their  vicar's  name ! 

Our  Jahvist  editor  seems  to  be  one  who  would  often 
say  of  laughter  "it  is  mad";  and  naturally  could  not 
imagine  how  Wisdom  could  "sport"  before  the  Lord 
(viii.  30)  unless  she  were  in  some  sense  mad.  The 
sport  before  Jahveh  could  only  be  in  mockery  of  some 
sinner's  torment,  like  the  derision  ascribed  to  Jahveh 


THE  BOOK   OF  PROVERBS.  77 

(Psalm  ii.  4)  ;  consequently  our  editor  represents  Wis- 
dom crying  abroad  in  the  streets : 

"Because  I  have  called  and  ye  refused  .... 

I  also  will  laugh  in  the  day  of  your  calamity, 
I  will  mock  when  your  fear  cometh." 

But  Pliny  mentions  the  Mazdean  belief,  confirmed  by 
Parsi  tradition,  that  Zoroaster  was  born  laughing.  To 
him  Ahura  IMazda  says :  "Do  thou  proclaim,  O  pure 
Zoroaster,  the  vigor,  the  glory,  the  help  and  the  joy  that 
are  in  the  Fravashis  (souls)  of  the  faithful." 

However,  we  may  see  in  these  first  seven  chapters  of 
Proverbs  that  Wisdom  had  become  detached  from  the 
sons  of  men,  in  whom  she  had  once  found  delight,  was 
no  longer  in  the  human  heart,  but  had  finally  ascended 
to  wield  the  heavenly  thunderbolts.  And  yet  it  is 
probable  that  we  owe  to  this  vindictive  and  menacing 
attitude  of  deified  Wisdom  the  preservation  of  so  many 
witty  and  sceptical  things  in  books  traditionally  ascribed 
to  Solomon.  The  orthodox  legend  being  that  the  Lord 
had  put  supernatural  wisdom  into  Solomon's  heart,  and 
never  revoked  it  despite  his  "idolatry"  and  secularism,  it 
followed  that  the  naughty  man  could  not  help  continu- 
ing to  be  a  medium  of  this  divine  person.  Wisdom,  and 
that  it  might  be  a  dangerous  thing  to  suppress  any 
utterance  of  hers  through  Solomon, — unwitting  blas- 
phemy. However  profane  or  worldly  the  writings 
might  appear  to  the  Jahvist  mind,  there  was  no  know- 
ing what  occult  inspiration  there  might  be  in  them,  and 
the  only  thing  editors  could  venture  was  to  sprinkle 
through  them  plenteous  disinfectants  in  the  way  of 
"Fear-of-thc-Lord"  wisdom. 

The  proverbs  in  which  the  name  Jahvch  appears  are 
not,  of  course,  to  be  indiscriminately  rejected  as  entirely 


78  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

Jahvist  interpolations.  It  seems  probable  that  little 
more  than  the  word  Jahveh  has  been  supplied  in  some 
of  these, — e.  g.,  xix.  3,  xx.  27,  xxi.  i,  3,  xxviii.  5,  xxix. 
26.  But  in  a  majority  of  cases  the  proverbs  containing 
the  name  Jahveh  are  ethically  and  radically  inharmon- 
ious with  the  substance  and  spirit  of  the  book  as  a 
whole,  which  is  founded  on  the  supremacy  of  human 
"merits"  as  fully  as  Zoroastrianism,  in  which  salvation 
depends  absolutely  on  Good  Thought,  Good  Word, 
Good  Deed.  In  dynamic  monotheism  (as  distin- 
guished from  ethical)  of  which  Jahvism  is  the  ancient 
and  Islam  the  modern  type,  the  doctrine  of  human 
"merits"  is  inadmissible:  a  man's  virtues  are  not  his 
own,  and  in  Jahveh's  sight  they  are  but  "filthy  rags," 
except  so  far  as  they  are  given  by  Jahveh.  But  in 
the  Solomonic  proverbs  the  highest  virtues,  and  the 
supreme  blessings  of  the  universe,  are  obtained  by  a 
man's  own  wisdom,  character,  and  deeds.  And  in  some 
cases  the  claims  for  Jahveh  appear  to  have  been  inserted 
as  if  in  answer  or  retort  to  proverbs  ignoring  the  par- 
ticipation of  any  deity  in  such  high  matters.  I  quote 
a  few  instances,  in  which  the  antithesis  turns  to 
antagonism : 

Solomon — By  kindness  and  truth  iniquity  is  atoned  for. 

Jahvist — By  the  fear  of  Jahveh  men  turn  away  from  evil, 
(xvi.  6.) 
Solomon — He  who  is  skilful  in  a  matter  findeth  good. 

Jahvist — Whoso  trusteth  in  Jahveh,  happy  is  he!     (xvi.  20.) 

In  several  other  cases  entire  proverbs  seem  to  be 
inserted  for  the  correction  of  preceding  ones, — ^these 
being  not  always  understood  by  the  interpolator : 

Solomon — Treasures  of  evil  profit  not, 

But  virtue  delivereth  from  death. 


THE  BOOK  OF  PROVERBS.  79 

Jahvist — Jahveh    will    not   suffer   the   righteous    man   to   be 
famished, 
But    the   desires   of    the    unrighteous    he   thrusteth 
away.     (x.  2,  3.) 
Solomon — The  tongue  of  the  just  is  choice  silver; 
The  heart  of  the  evil  is  little  worth : 
The  lips  of  the  just  feed  many, 
But  fools  die  through  heartlessness. 
Jahvist — The  blessing  of  Jahveh,  that  maketh  rich. 

And  work  addeth  nothing  thereto,     (x.  20-22.) 
Solomon — The  virtuous  man  hath  an  everlasting  foundation, 
(x.  25.) 
Jahvist — The  fear  of  Jahveh  prolongeth  days.     (x.  27.) 
Solomon — Hear  counsel,  receive  correction. 

That  thou  mayst  be  wise  in  thy  future. 
Jahvist — Many  are  the  purposes  in  a  man's  heart. 

But  the  counsel  of  Jahveh,  that  shall  stand,     (xix. 
20-1.) 
Solomon — The  acceptableness  of  a  man  is  his  kindness: 
Better  oif  the  poor  than  the  treacherous  man. 
Jahvist — The  fear  of  Jahveh  addeth  to  life ; 

Whoso  is  filled  therewith  shall  abide,  he  shall  not 
be  visited  by  evil.     (xix.  22-3.) 
Solomon — The  upright  man  considereth  his  way. 
Jahvist — Wisdom  is  nothing,  heart  nothing, 

Counsel  nothing,  against  Jahveh.      (xxi.  29.  30.) 

In  one  instance  the  Jahvist  has  made  a  slip  by  wliich 
his  hand  is  confessed.     In  xvii.  3  we  find : 

The  fining-pot  is  for  silver,  and  the  furnace  for  gold. 
But  Jahveh  trieth  hearts. 

But  he  omitted  to  notice  the  repetition  in  xxvii.  21, 
where  we  find  the  profomid  sentence  which  the  Jahvist 
had  reduced  to  commonplace : 

The  fining-pot  for  silver  and  the  furnace  for  gold, 
And  a  man  is  proved  by  that  which  he  praiseth. 

The  Jahvist  spirit  is  also  discoverable  in  xx.  22 ; 


So  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

Solomon — Say  not  "I  will  retaliate  evil"; 
Jahvist — Wait  for  Jahveh  and  he  will  save  thee. 

Also  in  XXV.  21-2  : 

Solomon — If  he  that  hateth  thee  be  hungry,  give  him  bread 
to  eat, 
If  he  be  athirst  give  him  water  to  drink. 
Jahvist — For  thou  shalt  heap  coals  of  fire  on  his  head, 
And  Jahveh  shall  reward  thee. 

A  similar  mean  and  vindictive  spirit  is  shown  in  xxiv. 
18,  following  a  magnanimous  proverb ;  but  in  verse  29, 
probably  more  ancient  than  18,  we  find  the  unqualified 
rebuke  of  retaliation : 

Say  not  "As  he  hath  done  to  me,  so  will  I  do  to  him, 
I  will  render  to  the  man  according  to  his  work." 

It  was  this  generosity  that  Buddha  exercised,*  and 
Jesus;  and  it  was  left  to  Paul  to  recover  the  Jahvist 
modifications  of  Solomon's  wisdom  in  order  to  adul- 
terate for  hard  Romans  the  humane  spirit  of  Jesus 
(Romans  xii.  19,  20).  The  Solomonic  sentences  are 
normally  so  magnanimous  as  to  throw  suspicion  on  any 
clause  tainted  with  smallness  or  vulgarity.  The  per- 
vading spirit  is,  "The  benevolent  heart  shall  be  enriched, 
and  he  who  watereth  shall  himself  be  watered." 

There  is  one  proverb   (xiv.  32)   which  suggests  a 
belief  in  immortality,  or  possibly  in  the  Angel  of  Death : 
By  his  evil  deeds  the  evil  man  is  thrust  downward, 
But  the  virtuous  man  hath  confidence  in  his  death. 

According  to  the  Avesta  every  man  is  born  with  an 
invisible  noose  around  his  neck.  When  a  good  man 
dies  the  noose  falls,  and  he  passes  to  a  beautiful  region 
where  he  is  met  by  a  maid,  to  whom  he  says,  "Who 
art  thou,  who  art  the  fairest  I  have  ever  seen?"     She 

*  See  my  Sacred  Anthology ,  p.  2.|0. 


THE  BOOK  OF  PROVERBS.  8 1 

answers,  "O  thou  of  good  thoughts,  good  words,  good 
deeds,  I  am  thy  actions."  The  evil  man  meets  a  leprous 
hag,  embodiment  of  his  actions,  who  by  his  noose  drags 
him  down  through  the  evil-thought  hell,  the  evil-word 
iiell,  the  evil-deed  hell,  to  the  region  of  "Endless  Dark- 
ness" (Yast  xxii.).  This  darkness  may  be  metaphoric- 
ally spoken  of  in  Proverbs  xx.  20 : 

He  that  curseth  his  father  and  mother, 

His  lamp  shall  be  put  out  in  the  blackest  darkness. 

But  generally  the  allusions  to  death  in  the  Solo- 
monic proverbs  do  not  seem  to  allude  to  physical  death. 
In  X,  2  "virtue  delivereth  from  death"  is  in  antithesis 
to  the  unprofitableness  of  evil  treasures,  and  in  16: 

The  reward  of  a  virtuous  man  is  life; 
The  gain  of  the  wicked  is  sin. 

Here  "life"  and  "sin"  are  in  opposition.  Other  sen- 
tences to  be  compared  are : 

The  teaching  of  the  wise  is  a  fountain  of  life, 

To  avoid  the  snares  of  death,     (xiii.  14,  cf.  the  Jahvist  xiv.  27.) 

Understanding  is  a  fountain  of  life  to  those  who  possess  it, 

But  the  snare  of  fools  is  Folly,     (xvi.  22.) 

He  that  hateth  reproof  shall  die.    (xv.  10.) 

1  he  way  of  life  is  upward  to  the  wise, 

So  as  to  turn  away  from  the  grave  (sheol)  beneath,    (xv.  24.) 

Death  and  life  are  in  the  power  of  the  tongue. 

And  they  who  love  it  shall  eat  its  fruit,    (xviii.  21.) 

(In  the  last  clause  "it"  probably  refers  to  "life," 
unless  the  pronoun  be  cancelled  altogether.) 

The  getting  of  treasures  by  a  tongue  of  falsehood 

Is  getting  a  fleeting  vapour,  delusions  of  death,  (xxi.  6.) 

In  the  way  of  virtue  is  life, 

But  the  way  of  the  by-path  leadeth  to  death,    (xii.  28.) 

The  man  who  wandereth  from  the  way  of  instruction 

Shall  rest  in  the  congregation  of  the  phantoms,    (xxi.  16.) 


82  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

The  two  proverbs  last  quoted  may  be  usefully  com- 
pared with  the  ancient  Prologue  (viii.  ix.)  already 
referred  to  in  this  chapter,  as  they  are  there  reproduced 
pictorially  in  Wisdom  and  Dame  Folly  sitting-  at 
their  respective  doors.  Wisdom  offers  long  life  and 
happiness : 

But  he  who  wandereth  from  me  doeth  violence  to  his  own  life, 
All  who  hate  me  love  death,    (viii.  36.) 

Dame  Folly  tries  to  turn  into  her  by-path  those  who 
are  "proceeding  straight  in  their  course"  (ix.  15),  but 
her  victim — 

He  knoweth  not  her  phantoms  are  there, 

That  her  guests  are  in  the  underworld,    (ix.  18.) 

The  same  Hebrew  word  Rcphaiiii  (phantoms  or 
shades)  is  used  here  and  in  xxi.  16. 

All  of  these  references  to  death  and  the  underworld 
(sheol),  except  perhaps  xiv.  32,  refer  to  the  living 
death,  moral  and  spiritual,  which  is  of  such  vast  and 
fundamental  significance  in  Zoroastrian  religion.  In 
this  religion  the  evil  power  is  "all  death."  The  uni- 
verse is  divided  by  and  into  "the  living  and  the  not  liv- 
ing,"* "When  these  two  Spirits  came  together  they 
made  first  Life  and  Death," — words  sometimes  used  as 
synonymous  with  the  "Good  and  the  Evil  Mind." 
Ahura  Mazda  representing  all  the  forces  that  work  for 
health  and  life,  Angromainyu  (Ahriman)  all  that  work 
for  disease  and  destruction,  have  ranged  with  them  all 
animals  and  plants,  on  one  side  or  the  other,  in  this  great 
conflict.  The  life  of  an  Ahrimanian  creature  is  "incar- 
nate death."     (Darmesteter's  Introduction  to  the  Ven- 

*  Gaya  and  ajyaiti,  translated  by  Haug  "  reality  and  unreality"  {Parsis, 
p.  303).  The  translation  "living  and  not  living"  was  sent  me  by  Prof.  Max 
Miiller  in  answer  to  a  request  for  a  careful  rendering. 


THE  BOOK  OF  PROVERBS.  S3 

didad,  v.  ii.)  His  dcstructivcncss  is  equally  against 
virtue,  wisdom,  peace,  health,  happiness,  life,  and  all 
of  these,  not  merely  physical  dissolution,  are  included 
in  his  Avestan  title,  "The  Fiend  who  is  all  death."  He 
is  the  Abaddon  of  Revelation  ix.  11,  also  he  "that  had 
the  power  of  death"  in  Hebrews  ii.  14,  and  probably 
came  into  both  of  these  from  Proverbs  xxvii.  20: 

Sheol  and  Abaddon  are  never  satisfied, 
And  the  eyes  of  man  are  never  satisfied. 

Dr.  Inman  (Ancient  Faiths,  i.,  p.  180)  connects 
Abaddon  with  "Abadan  (cuneiform),  the  lost  one,  the 
sun  in  winter,  or  darkness,"  which  conforms  with  the 
Avestan  Ahriman,  who  is  emphatically  a  winter-demon, 
his  hell  being  in  the  north  (cf.  Jeremiah  i.  14  and  else- 
where), and  is  the  natural  adversary  of  the  Fire-wor- 
shipper. 

Among  the  Zoroastrians  there  were  not  only  Towers 
of  Silence  (Dakhma)  for  the  literally  dead,  but  also  for 
the  confinement  of  those  tainted  by  carrying  corpses, 
or  by  any  contact  with  the  death-fiend's  empire,  such  as 
being  struck  with  temporary  death.  "The  unclean," 
says  Darmesteter,  "are  confined  in  a  particular  place, 
apart  from  all  clean  persons  and  objects,  the  Armest- 
gah,  which  may  be  described,  therefore,  as  the  Dakhma 
for  the  living."  Here  then  are  the  dead-alive  guests 
of  Dame  Folly  (Proverbs  ix.  15),  who  opposes  Wis- 
dom, as  Ahriman  created  Akem-Mano  (evil  thought) 
to  oppose  Vohu-Mano  (good  thought),  and  here  is  the 
assembly  that  might  give  the  Solomonic  proverb  its 
metaphor: 

The  man  who  wandcrclli  from  the  way  of  instruction 
Sliall  rest  in  the  congregation  of  the  phantoms    (or  shades, 
Rct>liaim). 


84  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

The  Zoroastrian  books  from  which  I  have  been  quot- 
ing contain  passages  of  very  unequal  date,  but  it  is 
the  opinion  of  Avestan  scholars  that  most  of  them  are 
from  very  ancient  sources,  pre-Solomonic,  and  there  is 
no  chronological  difficulty  in  supposing  that  such  insti- 
tutions as  the  Armest-gah,  for  the  separation  of  the 
unclean,  should  not  have  been  well  known  in  ancient 
Jerusalem  before  the  corresponding  levitical  laws  con- 
cerning the  unclean  and  the  leprous  existed. 

The  Book  of  Proverbs  was  also  a  growth,  and 
although,  as  has  been  stated,  there  is  reason  to  regard 
as  later  additions  most  of  the  proverbs  containing  the 
word  Jahveh,  as  they  are  inconsistent  with  the  general 
ethical  tenor  of  the  book,  there  are  several  in  which  that 
name  is  evidently  out  of  place.  Even  in  the  editorial 
Prologue  we  can  hardly  recognize  orthodox  Jahvism 
in  the  conception  of  a  being,  Wisdom,  not  created  by 
Jahveh  yet  giving  him  delight  and  some  kind  of  assist- 
ance at  the  creation ;  and  nowhere  else  in  the  Old  Tes- 
tament do  we  find  such  an  idea  as  that  of  xx.  27,  "The 
spirit  of  a  man  is  Jahveh's  lamp,"  or  in  xix.  17 : 
He  who  is  kind  to  the  poor  lendeth  to  Jahveh, 
And  his  good  deed  shall  be  recompensed  to  him. 

But  in  the  Zoroastrian  religion  men  and  women  render 
assistance  and  encouragement  to  the  gods,  and  we  find 
the  chief  deity,  Ahura  Mazda,  saying  to  Zoroaster  con- 
cerning the  Fravashis,  or  souls,  of  holy  men  and 
women:  "Do  thou  proclaim,  O  pure  Zoroaster,  the 
vigor  and  strength,  the  glory,  the  help  and  the  joy,  that 
are  in  the  Fravashis  of  the  faithful  ....  do  thou  tell 
how  they  came  to  help  me,  how  they  bring  assistance 
unto  me.  .  .  .  Through  their  brightness  and  glory,  O 
Zoroaster,  I  maintain  that  sky  there  above."     Favardin 


THE  BOOK  OF  PROVERBS.  85 

Yast,  I,  2.)  As  Frederick  the  Great  said,  "a  king  is 
the  chief  of  subjects,"  so  with  Zoroaster  Ahura  Mazda 
is  the  chief  of  the  faithful ;  or,  as  Luther  said,  "God 
is  strong,  but  he  Hkes  to  be  helped." 

The  similitude  in  Proverbs  xx.  27  is  especially  impor- 
tant in  our  inquiry : 

The  spirit  of  man  is  the  lamp  of  Jahveh, 
Searching  all  the  chambers  of  the  body. 

The  word  for  "spirit"  here  is  Nishnia,  which  occurs 
in  but  one  other  instance  in  the  Bible,  namely,  in  Job 
xxvi.  4.     Job  asks  : 

To  whom  hast  thou  uttered  words? 
And  whose  spirit  came  forth  from  thee? 

This  chapter  of  Job  (xxvi.)  is  closely  related  to 
Proverbs  viii.  and  ix.,  both  in  thought  and  phraseology  : 
the  Rephaim,  or  phantoms,  the  "pillars,"  the  ordering 
of  earth  and  clouds,  the  boundary  on  the  deep ;  and 
there  is  an  allusion  to  "the  confines  of  Light  and  Dark- 
ness," which  point  to  the  domains  of  Wisdom  and  Dame 
Folly.  Job  and  the  proverbialist  surely  got  these  ideas 
from  the  same  source,  and  also  the  word  nisJuna,  trans- 
lated "spirit,"  which  throughout  the  Old  Testament  is 
ruach,  save  in  the  two  texts  indicated.  But  there  is  no 
text  in  the  Bible  where  ruach,  spirit,  or  soul,  is  associ- 
ated with  light  like  the  nishiiia  of  the  proverb,  and  in 
Job  nishnia  evidently  means  a  superhuman  spirit. 
Now  there  is  a  Chaldean  word,  nistiia,  which  in  the 
Persian  Boundahis  appears  as  iiisiiw,  and  is  translated 
by  West,  "living  soul."  The  ordinary  word  for  soul  in 
the  Pars!  scriptures  seems  to  be  riiban,  and  West 
regards  the  two  words  as  meaning  the  same  thing, 
the  breath,  or  soul,  basing  this  on  the  following  passage 


86  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

of  the  Bundahis,  representing  the  separation  of  the  first 
mortal  into  the  first  human  pair,  Mashya  and  Mashyoi : 

"And  the  waists  of  both  were  brought  close,  and  so  con- 
nected together  that  it  was  not  clear  which  is  the  male  and 
which  the  female,  and  which  is  the  one  whose  living  soul 
(nismo)  of  Aiiharmazd  (God)  is  not  away  (lacking).  As  it 
is  said  thus:  'Which  is  created  before,  the  soul  (nismo)  or 
the  body?  And  Aiiharmazd  said  that  the  soul  is  created 
before,  and  the  body  after,  for  him  who  was  created ;  it  is 
given  unto  the  body  to  produce  activity,  and  the  body  is  cre- 
ated only  for  activity;  hence  the  conclusion  is  this,  that  the 
soul  (riiban)  is  created  before  and  the  body  after.  And  both 
of  them  changed  from  the  shape  of  a  plant  into  the  shape  of 
man,  and  the  breath  (nismo)  went  spiritually  into  them,  which 
is  the  soul  (riiban)."* 

With  all  deference  to  the  learned  translator,  I  cannot 
think  his  exegesis  here  quite  satisfactory.  In  the  first 
sentence  nismo  is  the  breath  of  God ;  and  although  in 
the  second  the  same  word  is  used  for  the  human  soul, 
the  writer  seems  to  have  aimed  in  the  last  sentence  at  a 
distinction:  the  divine  breath  or  spirit  (nismo)  creates 
a  soul  (riiban),  to  receive  which  the  plant  is  trans- 
formed into  a  body  fitted  for  the  "activity"  of  an 
imbreathed  soul.  West  twice  translates  nismo  "living 
soul,"  but  niban  only  "soul."  Does  not  this  indicate 
Ahura  Mazda  as  the  source  of  divine  life,  as  in  (jenesis 
ii.  7,  where  Jahveh-Elohim  breathes  into  man,  who 
becomes  a  "living  soul," — a  being  within  the  domain 
of  the  god  of  life,  not  subject  to  the  god  of  death?  Is 
it  not  his  niban  that  is  the  image  of  nismo  f  (Cf.  Gene- 
sis ix.  5,  6.) 

Turning  now  to  the  Avesta,  we  find  the  famous  Fav- 
ardin  Yast,  a  collection  of  litanies  and  ascriptions  to  the 
Fravashis.     "The  Fravashi,"  says  Darmesteter,  "is  the 

*  Sacred  Books  of  the  East.    Vol.  V,,  pp.  i6,  53-54.    Text  and  notes. 


THE  BOOK  OF  PROVERBS.  87 

inner  power  in  every  being  that  maintains  it  and  makes 
it  g-row  and  subsist.  Originally  the  Fravashis  were  the 
same  as  the  Pitris  of  the  Hindus  or  the  Manes  of  the 
Latins,  that  is  to  say,  the  everlasting  and  deified  souls 
of  the  dead ;  but  in  course  of  time  they  gained  a  wider 
domain,  and  not  only  men,  but  gods  and  even  physical 
objects,  like  the  sky  and  the  earth,  had  each  a  Fravashi." 
"The  Fravashi  was  independent  of  the  circumstances  of 
life  or  death,  an  immortal  part  of  the  individual  which 
existed  before  man  and  outlived  him." 

In  Yast  xxii.  39,  40,  it  is  said :  "O  Maker,  how  do 
the  souls  of  the  dead,  the  Fravashis  of  the  holy  Ones, 
manifest  themselves?"  Ahura  Mazda  answered: 
"They  manifest  themselves  from  goodness  of  spirit  and 
excellence  of  mind." 

Favardin  Yast,  9:  "Through  their  brightness  and 
glory,  O  Zarathrustra,  I  maintain  the  wide  earth,"  etc. 
12  :  "Had  not  the  awful  Fravashis  of  the  faithful  given 
help  unto  me,  those  animals  and  men  of  mine,  of  which 
there  are  such  excellent  kinds,  would  not  subsist ; 
strength  would  belong  to  the  fiend." 

In  other  verses  these  Fravashis  (the  word  means 
"protectors")  help  the  children  unborn,  nourish  health, 
develop  the  wise.  The  imagery  relating  to  them  is 
largely  related  to  the  stars,  of  which  many  are  guar- 
dians. These  are  probably  the  origin  of  the  Solomonic 
similitude  of  reason,  "The  spirit  (nishma)  of  man  is 
the  lamp  of ?" 

With  all  of  these  correspondences  between  the  Solo- 
monic proverbs,  nothing  is  more  remarkable  than  their 
originality,  so  far  as  any  ancient  scriptures  are  con- 
cerned. While  they  are  totally  different  from  the 
Psalms,  in  showing  man  as  a  citizen  of  the  world,  rely- 


88  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

ing  on  himself  and  those  around  him  for  happiness,  and 
exalting  nothing  above  human  virtue  and  intelligence, 
without  any  religious  fervor  or  wrath,  the  proverbialist 
is  equally  far  from  the  ethical  superstitions  of  Zoroas- 
trian  religion,  which  abounds  in  fictitious  "merits"  and 
anathematises  fictitious  immoralities.  It  is  as  if  some 
sublime  Eastern  pedlar  and  banker  of  ethical  and  poetic 
gems,  who  had  come  in  contact  with  Oriental  litera- 
tures, had  separated  from  their  liturgies  and  prophecies 
the  nuggets  of  gold  and  the  precious  stones,  polishing, 
resetting,  and  exciting  others  to  do  the  like.  At  the 
same  time  many  of  the  sentences  are  the  expressions  of 
an  original  mind,  a  man  of  letters,  neither  Eastern  nor 
Oriental,  and  these  may  be  labelled  with  the  line  of  the 
Persian  poet  Faizi :  "Take  Faizi's  Diwan  to  bear  wit- 
ness to  the  wonderful  speeches  of  a  freethinker  who 
belongs  to  a  thousand  sects." 


CHAPTER    IX. 

THE    SONG    OF    SONGS. 

The  praise  of  the  virtuous  woman,  at  the  close  of  the 
Proverbs,  is  given  a  Jahvist  turn  by  verse  30 :  "Favour 
is  deceitful  and  beauty  vain  ;  but  a  woman  that  feareth 
the  Lord,  she  shall  be  praised."  But  the  Solomonists 
also  had  their  ideas  of  the  virtuous  woman,  and  of 
beauty,  these  being  beautifully  expressed  in  a  series 
of  dramatic  idylls  entitled  The  Song  of  Songs.  To  this 
latter,  in  the  original  title,  is  added,  "which  is  Solo- 
mon's" ;  and  it  confirms  what  has  been  said  concerning 
the  superstitious  awe  of  everything  proceeding  from 
Solomon,  and  the  dread  of  insulting  the  Holy  Spirit  of 
Wisdom  supernaturally  lodged  in  him,  that  we  find  in 
the  Bible  these  passionate  love  songs.  And  indeed 
Solomon  must  have  been  superlatively  wise  to  have 
written  poems  in  which  his  greatness  is  slightly  ridi- 
culed. That  of  course  would  be  by  no  means  incredible 
in  a  man  of  genuine  wisdom — on  the  contrary  would  be 
characteristic — if  other  conditions  were  met  by  the  tra- 
dition of  his  authorship. 

At  the  outset,  however,  we  are  confronted  by  the 
question  whether  the  Song  of  Songs  has  any  general 
coherency  or  dramatic  character  at  all.  Several  mod- 
ern critics  of  learning,  among  them  Prof.  Karl  Budde 
and  the  late  Edward  Rcuss,  find  the  book  a  collection  of 
unconnected  lyrics,  and  Professor  Cornill  of  Konigs- 

89 


90  SOLOMONIC   LITERATURE. 

berg  has  added  the  great  weight  of  his  name  to  that 
opinion  (Einleitung  in  das  Alte  Testament.  1891). 
Unfortunately  Professor  Cornill's  treatment  is  brief, 
and  not  accompanied  by  a  complete  analysis  of  the 
book.  He  favors  as  a  principle  Reuss's  division  of 
Canticles  into  separate  idylls,  and  thinks  most  readers 
import  into  this  collection  of  songs  an  imaginary  sys- 
tem and  significance.  This  is  certainly  true  of  the 
"allegorical"  purport,  aim,  and  religious  ideas  ascribed 
to  the  book,  but  Professor  Cornill's  reference  to  Herder 
seems  to  leave  the  door  open  for  further  treatment  of 
the  Song  of  Songs  from  a  purely  literary  standpoint. 
He  praises  Herder's  discernment  in  describing  the  book 
as  a  string  of  pearls,  but  passes  without  criticism  or 
denial  Herder's  further  view  that  there  are  indications 
of  editorial  modifications  of  some  of  the  lyrics.  For 
what  purpose?  Herder  also  pointed  out  that  various 
individualities  and  conditions  are  represented.  This 
indeed  appears  undeniable:  here  are  prince  and  shep- 
herd, the  tender  mother,  the  cruel  brothers,  the  rough 
watchman,  the  dancer,  the  bride  and  bridegroom.  The 
dramatis  personce  are  certainly  present :  but  is  there 
any  drama  ? 

Admitting  that  there  was  no  ancient  Hebrew 
theatre,  the  question  remains  whether  among  the  later 
Hellenic  Jews  the  old  songs  were  not  arranged,  and 
new  ones  added,  in  some  kind  of  Sings piele  or  vaude- 
ville. There  seems  to  be  a  chorus.  It  is  hardly  con- 
sistent with  the  general  artistic  quality  of  the  compila- 
tion that  the  lady  should  say  "I  am  swarthy  hut  comely," 
or  "I  am  a  lily  of  the  valley"  (a  gorgeous  flower). 
Surely  the  compliments  are  ejaculations  of  the  chorus. 
And  may  we  not  ascribe  to  a  chorus  the  questions,  "Who 


THE  SONG   OF  SONGS.  91 

is  this  that  cometh  up  out  of  the  wilderness?"  etc. 
(iii.  6-10.)  "What  is  thy  beloved  more  than  another 
beloved"?  (v.  9.)  "Who  is  this  that  cometh  up  from 
the  wilderness  leaning  on  her  beloved"?  (viii.  5). 

As  in  the  modern  vaudeville  songs  are  often  intro- 
duced without  any  special  relation  to  the  play,  so  we 
find  in  Canticles  some  songs  that  might  be  transposed 
from  one  chapter  to  another  without  marring  the  work, 
but  is  this  the  case  with  all  of  them  ?  The  song  in  the 
first  chapter,  for  instance,  in  which  the  damsel,  brought 
by  the  King  into  his  palace,  tells  the  ladies  of  the  home 
she  left,  and  of  maltreatment  by  her  brothers,  who  took 
her  from  her  own  vineyard  and  made  her  work  in  theirs, 
where  she  was  sunburnt, — this  could  not  be  placed 
effectively  at  the  end  of  the  book,  nor  the  triumphant 
line,  "My  vineyard,  which  is  mine  own,  is  before  me," 
be  set  at  the  beginning.  This  is  but  one  of  several 
instances  that  might  be  quoted.  Even  pearls  may  be 
strung  with  definite  purpose,  as  in  a  rosary,  and  how 
perfectly  set  is  the  great  rose, — the  hymn  to  Love  in 
the  final  chapter !  Or  to  remember  Professor  Cornill's 
word  Sceneiizi-'echsel,  along  with  his  affirmation  that  the 
love  of  human  lovers  is  the  burden  of  the  "unrivalled" 
book,  there  are  some  sequences  and  contrasts  which  do 
convey  an  impression  of  dissolving  views,  and  occa- 
sionally reveal  a  connexion  between  separate  tableaux. 
For  example  the  same  words  (which  I  conjecture  to 
be  those  of  a  chorus)  are  used  to  introduce  Solomon  in 
pompous  palanquin  with  grand  escort,  that  are  presently 
used  to  greet  the  united  lovers. 
"Who  is  this  that  cometh  up  from  the  wilderness  like  pillars 

of  smoke?"    (iii.  6.) 
"Who  is  this  that  cometh  up  from  the  wilderness 
Leaning  on  her  beloved?"     (viii.  5.) 


92  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

These  are  five  chapters  apart,  yet  surely  they  may  be 
supposed  connected  without  Hincinintcrpretation.  Any 
single  contrast  of  this  kind  might  be  supposed  a  mere 
coincidence,  but  there  are  two  others  drawn  between 
the  swarthy  maiden  and  the  monarch.  The  tableau  of 
Solomon  in  his  splendor  dissolves  into  another  of  his 
Queen  Mother  crowning  him  on  the  day  of  his  espousal : 
that  of  Shulamith  leaning  on  her  beloved  dissolves  into 
another  of  licr  mother  pledging  her  to  her  lover  in 
espousals  under  an  apple  tree.  And  then  we  find  (viii. 
II,  12)  Solomon's  distant  vineyards  tended  by  many 
hirelings  contrasted  with  Shulamith's  own  little  vine- 
yard tended  by  herself. 

The  theory  that  the  book  is  a  collection  of  bridal 
songs,  and  that  the  mention  of  Solomon  is  due  to  an 
eastern  custom  of  designating  the  bridegroom  and  bride 
as  Solomon  and  Queen  Shulamith,  during  their  honey- 
moon, does  not  seem  consistent  with  the  fact  that  in 
several  allusions  to  Solomon  his  royal  state  is  slighted, 
whereas  only  compliments  would  be  paid  to  a  bride- 
groom. Moreover  the  two — Shulamith  and  Solomon 
— are  not  as  persons  named  together.  It  will,  I  think, 
appear  as  we  proceed  that  the  Shelomoh  (Solomon)  of 
Canticles  represents  a  conventionalisation  of  the  mon- 
arch, with  some  traits  not  found  in  any  other  book  in 
the  Bible.  A  verse  near  the  close,  presently  considered, 
suggests  that  the  bride  and  bridegroom  are  at  that  one 
point  metaphorically  pictured  as  a  Solomon  and  Solo- 
mona,  indicating  one  feature  of  the  Wise  Man's  con- 
ventionalization. 

Renan  assigned  Canticles  the  date  B.  C.  992-952, 
mainly  because  in  it  Tirza  is  coupled  with  Jerusalem. 
Tirza  was  a  capital  only  during  those  years,  and  at 


THE   SONG   OF  SONGS.  93 

any  later  period  was  too  insignificant  a  town  to  be 
spoken  of  as  in  the  Song  vi.  4 : 

"Thou  art  beautiful,  O  my  love,  as  Tirzah, 
Comelj'  as  Jerusalem, 
Dazzling  as  bannered  ranks." 

But  the  late  Russell  Martineau,  a  thorough  and  un- 
biassed scholar,  points  out  in  the  work  phrases  from 
Greek  authors  of  the  third  century  B.  C,  and  assigns  a 
date  not  earlier  than  247 — 222.*  But  may  it  not  be 
that  the  Alexandrian  of  the  third  century  built  on 
some  earlier  foundation,  as  Shakespeare  adapted  the 
"Pound  of  Flesh"  and  the  "Three  Caskets"  (Merchant 
of  Venice)  from  tales  traceable  as  far  back  as  early 
Buddhist  literature?  or  as  Marlowe  and  Goethe  used 
the  mediaeval  legend  of  Faustus? 

The  several  songs  can  hardly  be  assigned  to  one  and 
the  same  century.  The  coupling  of  Tirza  and  Jeru- 
salem points  to  a  remote  past  for  that  particular  lyric, 
and  is  it  credible  that  any  Jew  after  Josiah's  time  could 
have  written  the  figleafless  songs  so  minutely  descrip- 
tive of  Shulamith's  physical  charms?  Could  any  Jew- 
ish writer  of  the  third  century  before  our  era  have  writ- 
ten iv.  1-7  or  vii.  I -9,  regarding  no  name  or  place  as 
too  sacred  to  be  pressed  into  his  hyperboles  of  rapture 
at  every  detail  of  the  maiden's  form,  and  have  done  this 
in  perfect  innocency,  without  a  blush?  Or  if  such  a 
poet  could  have  existed  in  the  later  Jahvist  times,  would 
his  songs  have  found  their  place  in  the  Jewish  canon? 
As  it  was  the  book  was  admitted  only  with  a  provision 
that  no  Jew  under  thirty  years  of  age  should  read  it. 
That  it  was  included  at  all  was  due  to  the  occult  pious 
meanings  read  into  it  by  rabbins,  while  it  is  tolerably 

*  American  Journal  of  Philology.    Vol.  III. 


94  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

certain  that  the  reaHstic  flesh-painting  would  have  been 
expunged  but  for  sanctions  of  antiquity  similar  to  those 
which  now  protect  so  many  old  classics  from  expurga- 
tion by  the  Vice  Societies.  These  songs,  sensuous 
without  sensuality,  with  their  Oriental  accent,  seem 
ancient  enough  to  have  been  brought  by  Solomon  from 
Ophir. 

On  the  other  hand  a  critical  reader  can  hardly 
ascribe  the  whole  book  to  the  Solomonic  period.  The 
exquisite  exaltation  of  Love,  as  a  human  passion  (viii. 
6,  7),  brings  us  into  the  refined  atmosphere  amid  v/hich 
Eros  was  developed,  and  it  is  immediately  followed  by 
a  song  that  hardly  rises  above  doggerel  (viii.  8,  9). 
This  is  an  interruption  of  the  poem  that  looks  as  if  sug- 
gested by  the  line  that  follows  it  (first  line  of  verse  10) 
and  meant  to  be  comic.  It  impresses  me  as  a  very  late 
interpolation,  and  by  a  hand  inferior  to  the  Alexandrian 
artist  who  in  style  has  so  well  matched  the  more  ancient 
pieces  in  his  literary  mosaic.  Herder  finds  the  collec- 
tion as  a  whole  Solomonic,  and  makes  the  striking  sug- 
gestion that  its  author  at  a  more  mature  age  would 
take  the  tone  of  Ecclesiasticus. 

Considered  simply  as  a  literary  production,  the  com- 
position makes  on  my  own  mind  the  impression  of  a 
romance  conveyed  in  idylls,  each  presenting  a  pictur- 
esque situation  or  a  scene,  the  general  theme  and  motif 
being  that  of  the  great  Solomonic  Psalm. 

This  psalm  (xlv.),  quoted  and  discussed  in  chapter 
III,,  brings  before  us  a  beautiful  maiden  broughit 
from  a  distant  region  to  the  court,  but  not  quite  happy : 
she  is  entreated  to  forget  her  people  and  enjoy  the  dig- 
nities and  luxuries  ofifered  by  her  lord,  the  King.  This 
psalm  is  remarkable  in  its  intimations  of  a  freedom  of 


rilE   SONG    OF  SONGS.  95 

sentiment  accorded  to  the  ladies  wooed  by  Solomon,  and 
the  same  spirit  pervades  Canticles.  Its  chief  refrain  is 
that  love  must  not  be  coerced  or  awakened  until  it 
please.  This  magnanimity  might  naturally  connect 
the  name  of  Solomon  with  old  songs  of  love  and  court- 
ship such  as  those  utilised  and  multiplied  in  this  book, 
whose  composition  might  be  naturally  entitled  "A  Song 
(made)  of  Songs  which  are  Solomon's." 

The  heroine,  whose  name  is  Shulamith, —  (feminine 
of  Shelomoh,  Solomon)* — is  an  only  daughter,  cher- 
ished by  her  apparently  widowed  mother  but  maltreated 
by  her  brothers.  Incensed  against  her,  they  compel 
Shulamith  to  keep  their  vineyards  to  the  neglect  of  her 
own.  She  becomes  sunburnt,  "swarthy,"  but  is  very 
"attractive,"  and  is  brought  by  Solomon  to  his  palace, 
where  she  delights  the  ladies  by  her  beauty  and  dances. 
In  what  I  suppose  to  be  one  of  the  ancient  Solomonic 
Songs  embodied  in  the  work  it  is  said : 

*  ]n  I  Chron.  iii.  19  Slieloniith  is  a  descendant  of  Solomon.  ]n  tliese 
studies  "  Abishag  tlie  Shunamitli,"  i  Kings,  i.  2,  has  been  coniecturally  con- 
nected witli  Psalm  xlv.,  and  the  identity  of  her  name  witli  Sliulamith  has 
also  been  mentioned.  This  identity  of  the  names  was  suggested  by  Gesenius 
and  accepted  by  Fiirst,  Renan,  ana  others.  Abishag  is  thus  also  a  sort  of 
"  Soloniona."  In  i  Kings  i.  there  is  some  indication  of  a  lacuna  between 
verses  4  and  ;.  "And  the  damsel  (Abishag)  was  very  fair;  and  she  cherished 
the  King  and  ministered  to  him;  but  the  King  knew  her  not.  Then"— what? 
why,  all  about  Adoniiah's  effort  to  become  king!  David  did  not  marry 
Abishag;  she  remained  a  maiden  after  his  death  and  free  to  wed  either  of 
the  brothers.  The  care  with  which  this  is  certified  was  probably  followed  by 
some  story  either  of  her  cleverness  or  of  her  relations  with  Solomon  which 
gave  her  the  name  Shunamith — Shulamith — Solomona.  Of  the  Shunamith  it 
is  said  they  found  her  far  away  and  "brought  her  to  the  King,"  and  in  the 
beginning  of  the  Song  Shulamith  says  "The  King  hath  brought  me  into  his 
chambers."  This  suggests  a  jirobability  of  legends  having  arisen  concerning 
Aljisliag,  and  concerning  the  lady  entreated  in  Psalm  xlv.,  which,  had  they 
been  preserved,  might  perhnps  account  for  the  coincidence  of  names,  as  well 
as  the  parallelism  of  the  situations  at  court  of  the  lady  of  the  psalm,  of 
.Abishag  the  Shunamith,  and  of  Shulaniitli  in  the  "song." 

Tlie  "great  woman"  called  Shunamith  in  2  Kings  4  was  probably  so 
called  because  of  lier  "wisdom"  in  discerning  the  prophet  Elislia,  and  the 
reference  to  the  town  of  Shunem  (verse  8)  inserted  by  a  writer  who  misunder- 
stood the  meaning  of  Shunamith.  This  story  is  unknown  to  Josephus, 
tliough  he  tells  the  story  of  the  widow's  pot  of  oil  immediately  preceding,  in 
the  same  chapter,  and  asserts  that  lie  has  gone  over  the  acts  of  tlisha  "  par- 
ticularly," "  as  we  have  them  set  down  in  the  sacred  books."  (Aiitiqiiities. 
Book  ix.  ch.  4.)  The  chapter  (2  Kir;gs  iv.1  is  mainly  a  mere  travesty  of  the 
stories  told  in  I  Kings  xvii.,  transparently  meant  to  certify  that  tne  mir- 
aculous p(-v.i  \  of  F.lijah  had  passed  with  his  mantle  to  Klislia.  There  is  no 
mention  ot  Sliuneui  in  the  original  legend.     (  I  Kings  xvii.  ) 


96  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

"There  are  threescore  queens,  and  fourscore  concubines, 
And  maidens  without  number : 
Beyond  compare  is  my  dove,  my  unsoiled ; 
She  is  the  only  one  of  her  mother, 
The  cherished  one  of  her  that  bare  her : 
The  daughters  saw  her  and  called  her  blessed. 
Yea,  the  queens  and  the  concubines,  and  they  praised  her."* 

Thus  far  the  mol'if  seems  to  be  that  of  a  Cinderella 
oppressed  by  brothers  but  exalted  by  the  most  mag- 
nificent of  princes.  But  here  the  plot  changes.  The 
magnificence  of  Solomon  cannot  allure  from  her  shep- 
herd lover  this  "lily  of  the  valley."  Her  lover  visits  her 
in  the  palace,  where  her  now  relenting  brothers  (vi.  12) 
seem  to  appear  (though  this  is  doubtful)  and  witness 
her  triumphs ;  and  all  are  in  raptures  at  her  dancing 
and  her  amply  displayed  charms — all  unless  one  (per- 
haps the  lover)  who,  according  to  a  doubtful  interpre- 
tation, complains  that  they  should  gaze  at  her  as  at 
dancers  in  the  camps  (vi.  13).** 

Although  Russell  Martineau  maintained,  against 
most  other  commentators,  that  Solomon  is  only  a  part 
of  the  scene,  and  not  among  the  dramatis  persona,  the 
King  certainly  seems  to  be  occasionally  present,  as  in 
the  following  dialogue,  where  I  give  the  probable, 
though  of  course  conjectural,  names.  The  dancer  has 
approached  the  King  while  at  table. 

Solomon — 

"I  have  compared  thee,  O  my  love, 
To  my  steed  in  Pharaoh's  chariot. 
Thy  cheeks  are  comely  with  plaits  of  hair, 
Thy  neck  with  strings  of  jewels. 

*  Compare  Psalm  xlv.  12-15. 

**  I.  "Why  will  ye  looTc  upon  Shulamith  as  upon  the  dance  of  Mahan- 
aim?"  The  sense  is  obscure.  Cf.  Gen.  xxxii.  2,  where  Jacob  names  a  place 
Manhanaim,  literally  two  armies  or  camps;  but  it  was  in  honor  of  the  angels 
that  met  him  there,  and  it  is  possible  that  Shulamith  is  here  compared  to  an 
angel.  If  the  verse  means  any  blush  at  tlie  dancer's  display  of  her  person  it 
is  the  only  trace  of  prudery  in  the  book,  and  betrays  the  Alexandrian. 


THE  SOXG   OF  SONGS.  97 

We  will  make  thee  plaits  of  gold 
With  studs  of  silver." 

Shulamitit,  who,  on  leaving  the  King,  meets  her  jealous  lover — 
"While  the  King  sat  at  his  table 
My  spikenard  sent  forth  its  odor. 
My  beloved  is  unto  me  as  a  bag  of  myrrh 
That  licth  between  my  breasts, 

My  beloved  is  unto  me  as  a  cluster  of  henna-flowers 
In  the  vineyards  of  En-gedi." 

Shepherd  Lover — 

"Behold  thou  art  fair,  my  love,  behold  thou  art  fair; 
Thine  eyes  are  as  doves, 

Behold  thou  art  fair,  my  beloved,  yea  pleasant: 
Also  our  couch  is  green. 
The  beams  of  our  hoUse  are  of  cedar, 
And  our  rafters  are  of  fir." 

Shnlamith — 

"I  am  a  (mere)  crocus  of  the  plain." 

Chorus,  or  perhaps  the  Lover — 
"A  lily  of  the  valleys." 

Shepherd  Lover — 

"As  a  lily  among  thorns 
So  is  my  love  among  the  daughters." 

Shulamith — 

"As  the  apple  tree  among  forest  trees 
So  is  my  beloved  among  the  sons. 
I  sat  down  under  his  shadow  with  great  delight, 
And  his  fruit  was  sweet  to  my  taste." 

Thus  we  find  the  damsel  anointing  the  king  with  Iter 
spikenard,  but  for  her  the  precious  fragrance  is  her 
shepherd.  Against  the  plaits  of  gold  and  studs  of  silver 
offered  in  the  palace  (i.  2)  her  lover  can  only  point  to 
his  cottage  of  cedar  and  fir,  and  a  couch  of  grass.  She 
is  content  to  be  only  a  flower  of  the  plain  and  valley, 
not  for  the  seraglio.  Nevertheless  she  remains  to 
dance  in  the  palace ;   a  sufficient  time  there  is  needed 


98  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

by  the  poet  to  illustrate  the  impregnability  of  true  love 
against  all  other  splendors  and  attractions,  even  those 
of  the  Flower  of  Kings.  He  however  puts  no  constraint 
on  her,  one  song,  thrice  repeated,  saying  to  the  ladies  of 
the  harem — 

"I  adjure  you,  O  daughters  of  Jerusalem, 
By  the  (free)  gazelles,  by  the  hinds  in  the  field, 
That  ye  stir  not  up,  nor  awaken  love. 
Until  it  please." 

This  refrain  is  repeated  the  second  time  just  before 
a  picture  of  Solomon's  glory,  shaded  by  a  suggestion 
that  all  is  not  brightness  even  around  this  Prince  of 
Peace.  The  ladies  of  the  seraglio  are  summoned  to 
look  out  and  see  the  passing  of  the  King  in  state,  seated 
on  his  palanquin  of  purple  and  gold,  but  escorted  by 
armed  men  "because  of  fear  in  the  night."  In  imme- 
diate contrast  with  that  scene,  we  see  Shulamith  going 
off  with  her  humble  lover,  now  his  bride,  to  his  field  and 
to  her  vineyard,  and  singing  a  beautiful  song  of  love, 
strong  as  death,  flame-tipped  arrow  of  a  god,  unquench- 
able, unpurchaseable. 

Though  according  to  the  revised  version  of  vi.  12 
her  relatives  are  princely,  and  it  may  be  they  who  invite 
her  to  return  (vi.  13),  she  says,  "I  am  my  beloved's." 
With  him  she  will  go  into  the  field  and  lodge  in  the 
village  (vii.  10,  11).  She  finds  her  own  little  garden 
and  does  not  envy  Solomon. 

"Solomon  hath  a  vineyard  at  Baalhamon; 
He  hath  let  out  the  vineyard  to  keepers ; 
Each  for  the  fruit  thereof  was  to  bring  a  thousand  pieces 

of  silver: 
My  vineyard,  which  is  mine,  is  before  me : 
Thou,  O  Solomon,  shall  have  the  thousand, 
And  those  that  keep  the  fruit  thereof  two  hundred." 


THE  SONG   OF  SONGS.  99 

There  was,  as  we  see  in  Koheleth,  a  prevailing  tradi- 
tion that  Solomon  felt  the  hollowness  of  his  palatial 
life.  "See  life  with  a  woman  thou  lovest."  The  wife 
is  the  fountain  : 

"Bethink  thee  of  thy  fountain 
In  the  days  of  thy  youth." 

This  perhaps  gave  rise  to  a  theory  that  the  shepherd 
lover  was  Solomon  himself  in  disguise,  like  the  god 
Krishna  among  the  cow-maidens.  It  does  not  appear 
probable  that  any  thought  of  that  kind  was  in  the  writer 
of  this  Song.  Certainly  there  appears  not  to  be  any 
purpose  of  lowering  Solomon  personally  in  enthroning 
Love  above  him.  There  is  no  hint  of  any  religious  or 
moral  objection  to  him,  and  indeed  throughout  the  work 
Solonion  appears  in  a  favourable  light  personally, — he 
is  beloved  by  the  daughters  of  Jerusalem  (v.  10)  — 
though  his  royal  estate  is,  as  we  have  seen,  shown  in  a 
light  not  altogether  enviable.  Threescore  mighty  men 
guard  him :  "every  man  hath  his  sword  upon  his  thigh 
because  of  fear  in  the  night,"  and  the  day  of  his  heart's 
gladness  was  the  day  of  his  espousals  (iii.  8,  11). 

It  is  not  improbable  that  there  is  an  allusion  to  Solo- 
mon's magic  seal  in  the  first  lines  of  the  hymn  to  Love 
(viii.  6).  The  legend  of  the  Ring  must  have  been  long 
in  growing  to  the  form  in  which  it  is  found  in  the 
Talmud,  where  it  is  said  that  Solomon's  "fear  in  the 
night"  arose  from  his  apprehension  that  the  Devil  might 
again  get  hold  of  his  Ring,  with  which  he  (Aschmedai) 
once  wrought  much  mischief.  (Giftin.  Vol.  68.  col. 
I,  2).     The  hymn  strikes  me  as  late  Alexandrian: 

"Wear  me  as  a  seal  on  thy  l)rcast 
As  a  seal-ring  on  thine  arm  : 
For  love  is  strong  as  death, 


lOO  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

Its  passion  unappeasable  as  the  grave; 

Its  shafts  are  arrows  of  fire, 

The  lightnings  of  a  god.     [Jah.] 

Many  waters  cannot  quench  love, 

Deluges  cannot  overwhelm  it. 

Should  a  noble  offer  all  the  wealth  of  his  house  for  love 

It  would  be  utterly  spurned." 

Excluding  the  interrupting  verses  8  and  9,  the  hymn 
is  followed  by  a  song  about  Solomon's  vineyard,  pre- 
ceded by  two  lines  which  appear  to  me  to  possess  a 
significance  overlooked  by  commentators.  Shulamith 
(evidently)  speaks: 

"I  was  a  wall,  my  breasts  like  its  towers : 
Thus  have  I  been  in  his  eyes  as  one  finding  peace. 
Solomon  hath  a  vineyard,"  etc.  [as  above.] 

The  word  "peace"  is  Shalom;  it  is  immediately  fol- 
lowed by  Shelomoh  (Solomon,  "peaceful")  ;  and  Shula- 
mith (also  meaning  "peaceful"),  thus  brings  together 
the  fortress  of  her  lover's  peace,  her  own  breast,  and 
the  fortifications  built  by  the  peaceful  King  (who  never 
attacked  but  was  always  prepared  for  defence).  Here 
surely,  at  the  close  of  Canticles,  is  a  sort  of  tableau : 
Shalom,  Shulamith,  Shelomoh :  Peace,  the  prince  of 
Peace,  the  queen  of  Peace.  If  this  were  the  only  lyric 
one  would  surely  infer  that  these  were  the  bride  and 
bridegroom,  under  the  benediction  of  Peace.  It  is  not 
improbable  that  at  this  climax  of  the  poem  Shulamith 
means  that  in  her  lover  she  has  found  her  Solomon, 
and  he  found  in  her  his  Solomona, — their  reciprocal 
strongholds  of  Shalom  or  Peace. 

Of  course  my  interpretations  of  the  Song  of  Songs 
are  largely  conjectural,  as  all  other  interpretations 
necessarily  are.  The  songs  are  there  to  be  somehow 
explained,  and  it  is  of  importance  that  every  unbiassed 


THE   SONG   OF  SONGS.  lOI 

Student  of  the  book  should  state  his  conjectures,  these 
being  based  on  the  contents  of  the  book,  and  not  on  the 
dogmatic  theories  which  have  been  projected  into  it. 
I  have  been  compelled,  under  the  necessary  limitations 
of  an  essay  like  the  present,  to  omit  interesting  details 
in  the  work,  but  have  endeavoured  to  convey  the  impres- 
sion left  on  my  own  mind  by  a  totally  unprejudiced 
study.  The  conviction  has  grown  upon  me  with  every 
step  that,  even  at  the  lowest  date  ever  assigned  it,  the 
work  represents  the  earliest  full  expression  of  roman- 
tic love  known  in  any  language.  It  is  so  entirely  free 
from  fabulous,  supernatural,  or  even  pious  incidents 
and  accents,  so  human  and  realistic,  that  its  having 
escaped  the  modern  playwright  can  only  be  attributed 
to  the  superstitious  encrustations  by  which  its  beauty 
has  been  concealed  for  many  centuries. 

This  process  of  perversion  was  l^cgun  by  Jewish 
Jahvists,  but  they  have  been  far  surpassed  by  our  A.  S. 
version,  whose  solemn  nonsense  at  most  of  the  chapter 
heads  in  the  Bible  here  reached  its  climax.  It  is  a 
remarkable  illustration  of  the  depths  of  fatuity  to 
which  clerical  minds  may  be  brought  by  prepossession, 
that  the  closing  chapter  of  Canticles,  with  its  beautiful 
exaltation  of  romantic  love,  could  be  headed:  ''The 
love  of  the  Church  to  Christ.  The  z'ehemcncy  of  Love. 
The  calling  of  the  Gentiles.  The  Church  Prayeth  for 
Christ's  coining."  The  "Higher  Criticism"  is  now 
turning  the  headings  into  comedy,  but  they  have  done 
— nay,  are  continuing — their  very  serious  work  of 
misdirection. 

It  has  already  been  noted  that  the  Jewish  doctors 
exalted  Bathsheba,  adulteress  as  she  w-as,  into  a  blessed 
woman,  probably  because  of  the  allusion  to  her  in  the 


102  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

Song  (iii.  2)  as  having  crowned  her  royal  Son,  who 
had  become  mystical ;  and  it  can  only  be  ascribed  to 
Protestantism  that,  instead  of  the  Queen-Mother  Mary, 
the  Church  becomes  Bathsheba's  successor  in  our  ver- 
sion:  ''The  Church  glorieth  in  Christ."  And  of 
course  the  shepherd  lover's  feeding  (his  flock)  among 
the  lilies  becomes  "Christ's  care  of  the  Church." 

But  for  such  fantasies  the  beautiful  Song  of  Songs 
might  indeed  never  have  been  preserved  at  all,  yet  is  it 
a  scandal  that  Bibles  containing  chapter-headings 
known  by  all  educated  Christians  to  be  falsifications, 
should  be  circulated  in  every  part  of  the  world,  and 
chiefly  among  ignorant  and  easily  misled  minds. 
These  simple  people,  reading  the  anathemas  pronounced 
in  their  Bibles  on  those  who  add  anything  to  the  book 
given  them  as  the  "Word  of  God"  (Deuteronomy  iv.  2, 
xii.  32,  Proverbs  xxx.  6,  Revelation  xxii.  18),  cannot 
imagine  that  these  chapter-headings  are  not  in  the 
original  books,  but  forged.  And  what  can  be  more 
brazenly  fraudulent  than  the  chapter-heading  to  one 
of  these  very  passages  (Revelation  xxii.  18,  19),  where 
nothing  is  said  of  the  "Word  of  God,"  but  over  which 
is  printed:  "18.  Nothing  may  be  added  to  the  word 
of  God,  nor  taken  therefrom."  But  even  the  learned 
cannot  quite  escape  the  effect  of  these  perversions. 
How  far  they  reach  is  illustrated  in  the  fate  of  Mary 
Magdalen,  a  perfectly  innocent  woman  according  to 
the  New  Testament,  yet  by  a  single  chapter-heading  in 
Luke  branded  for  all  time  as  the  "sinner"  who  anointed 
Jesus, — "Magdalen"  being  now  in  our  dictionaries  as  a 
repentant  prostitute.  Yet  there  are  hundreds  of  addi- 
tions to  the  Bible  more  harmful  than  this, — additions 
which,  whether  honestly  made  or  not  originally,  are 


THE   SONG   OF  SONGS.  103 

now  notoriously  fraudulent.  It  is  especially  necessary 
in  the  interest  of  the  Solomonic  and  secular  literature 
in  the  Bible  that  Truth  shall  be  liberated  from  the  mal- 
arious well — Jahvist  and  ecclesiastical — in  which  she 
has  long  been  sunk  by  mistranslation,  interpolation, 
and  chapter-headings.  The  Christian  churches  are  to 
be  credited  with  having  produced  critics  brave  enough 
to  expose  most  of  these  impositions,  and  it  is  now  the 
manifest  duty  of  all  public  teachers  and  literary  lead- 
ers to  uphold  those  scholars,  to  protest  against  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  propaganda  of  pious  frauds,  and  to 
insist  upon  the  supremacy  of  truth. 


CHAPTER    X. 

KOHELETH    (  ECCLESIASTES  ). 

In  the  Atlantic  Monthly  for  February,  1897,  a 
writer,  in  giving  his  personal  reminiscences  of  Tenny- 
son, relates  an  anecdote  concerning  the  poet  and  the 
Rev.  F.  D.  Maurice.  Speaking  of  Ecclesiastes  (Kohe- 
leth),  Tennyson  said  it  was  the  one  book  the  admission 
of  which  into  the  canon  he  could  not  understand,  it  was 
so  utterly  pessimistic — of  the  earth,  earthy.  Maurice 
fired  up.  "Yes,  if  you  leave  out  the  last  two  verses. 
But  the  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter  is,  'Fear  God 
and  keep  His  commandments :  for  this  is  the  whole  duty 
of  man.  For  God  shall  bring  every  work  into  judg- 
ment, with  every  secret  thing,  whether  it  be  good  or 
whether  it  be  evil.'  So  long  as  you  look  only  down 
upon  earth,  all  is  'vanity  of  vanities.'  But  if  you  look 
up  there  is  a  God,  the  judge  of  good  and  evil."  Tenny- 
son said  he  would  think  over  the  matter  from  that  point 
of  view. 

This  amusing  incident  must  have  caused  a  ripple  of 
laughter  in  scholastic  circles,  now  that  the  labors  of 
Cheyne,  Renan,  Dillon,  and  others,  have  left  little 
doubt  that  both  of  the  verses  cited  by  Maurice  are  later 
editorial  additions.  They  alone,  he  admitted,  could 
save  the  book,  and  the  charm  of  the  incident  is  that 
the  verses  were  placed  there  by  ancient  Maurices  to 
induce  ancient  Tennysons  to  "think  over  the  matter 
from  that  point  of  view."     The  result  was  that  the 

104 


KOHELETII  {ECCLESIASTBS).  105 

previously  rejected  book  was  admitted  into  the  canon 
by  precisely  the  same  force  which  continued  its  work 
at  Faringford,  and  continues  it  to  this  day.  Only  one 
must  not  suppose  that  Mr.  Maurice  was  aware  of  the 
ungenuineness  of  the  verses.  He  was  an  honest  gen- 
tleman, but  so  ingeniously  mystical  that  had  the  two 
verses  not  been  there  he  could  readily  have  found  others 
of  equally  transcendant  and  holy  significance,  without 
even  resorting  to  other  pious  interpolations  in  the  book. 

Tennyson  was  curiously  unconscious  of  his  own 
pessimism.  When  any  one  questioned  the  belief  in  a 
future  life  in  his  presence  his  vehemence  without  argu- 
ment betrayed  his  sub-conscious  misgivings,  while  his 
indignation  ran  over  all  the  conditional  resentments  of 
Job.  I  have  heard  that  he  said  to  Tyndall  that  if  he 
knew  there  was  no  future  life  he  would  regard  the 
creator  of  human  beings  as  a  demon,  and  shake  his  fist 
in  His  eternal  face.  This  rage  was  based  in  a  more 
profoundly  pessimistic  view  of  the  present  life  than 
anything  even  in  Ecclesiastes, — by  which  name  may  be 
happily  distinguished  the  disordered,  perverted,  and 
mistranslated  Koheleth, 

It  appears  evident  that  the  sentence  which  opens 
Koheleth, — in  our  Bibles  "AH  is  vanity,  saith  the 
Preacher ;  vanity  of  vanities,  all  is  vanity," — is  as  mere 
a  Jahvist  chapter-heading  as  that  of  our  A.  S.  transla- 
tors :  "The  Preacher  showeth  that  all  human  courses 
are  vain."  It  is  repeated  as  the  second  of  the  eight 
verses  added  at  the  end  of  the  work.  Koheleth  does 
not  label  the  whole  of  things  vanity ;  in  a  majority  of 
cases  the  things  he  calls  vain  are  vain ;  and  some  things 
he  finds  not  vanity, — youth,  and  wedded  love,  and 
work  that  is  congenial. 


Io6  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

Reiian  (Histoire  du  Pcuple  d'lsracl,  Tome  5,  p.  158) 
has  shown  conclusively,  as  I  think,  that  the  signature 
on  this  book,  QHLT,  is  a  mere  letter-play  on  the  word 
"Solomon,"  and  the  eagerness  with  which  the  letters 
were  turned  into  Koheleth  (which  really  means  Preach- 
eress),  and  to  make  Solomon's  inner  spouse  a  preacher 
of  the  vanities  of  pleasure  and  the  wisdom  of  fearing 
God,  is  thus  naively  indicated  in  the  successive  names 
of  the  book,  "Koheleth"  and  "Ecclesiastes."  We  are 
thus  warned  by  the  title  to  pick  our  way  carefully  where 
the  Jahvist  and  the  Ecclesiastic  have  been  before  us ; 
remembering  especially  that  though  piety  may  induce 
men  to  forge  things,  this  is  never  done  lightly.  As  peo- 
ple now  do  not  commit  forgery  for  a  shilling,  so  neither 
did  those  who  placed  spurious  sentences  or  phrases  in 
nearly  every  chapter  of  the  Bible  do  so  for  anything 
they  did  not  consider  vital  to  morality  or  to  salvation. 
In  Ecclesiastes  we  must  be  especially  suspicious  of  the 
very  serious  religious  points.  Fortunately  the  style  of 
the  book  renders  it  particularly  subject  to  the  critical 
and  literary  touchstone. 

Is  it  necessary  to  point  out  to  any  man  of  literary 
instinct  the  interpolation  bracketed  in  the  following 
verses?  "Rejoice,  O  young  man,  in  thy  youth,  and  let 
thy  heart  gladden  thee  in  the  flower  of  thy  age,  and 
walk  in  the  paths  of  thy  heart,  and  according  to  the 
vision  of  thine  eyes  [but  know  thou  that  for  all  these 
things  God  will  bring  thee  into  judgment],  and  banish 
discontent  from  thy  heart,  and  put  away  evil  from  thy 
flesh  ;  for  youth  and  dawn  are  fleeting.  Remember  also 
thy  fountain  in  the  days  of  thy  youth,  or  ever  the 
evil  days  come  or  the  years  draw  nigh  in  which  thou 
shalt  say  I  have  no  delight  in  them." 


KOIIELETH  {ECCLESIASrES).  107 

It  is  only  by  removing  the  bracketed  clause  that  any 
consistency  can  be  found  in  the  lyric,  which  Professor 
Cheyne  compares  with  the  following  song  by  the  ancient 
Egyptian  harper  at  the  funeral  feast  of  Neferhotap : 

"Make  a  good  day,  O  holy  fathers! 
Let  odors  and  oils  stand  before  thy  nostril ; 
Wreaths  and  lotus  are  on  the  arms  and  bosom  of  thy  sister 
Dwelling  in  thy  heart,  sitting  beside  thee. 
Let  song  and  music  be  before  thy  face, 
And  leave  behind  thee  all  evil  dirges ! 
Mind  thee  of  joy,  till  cometh  the  day  of  pilgrimage, 
When  we  draw  near  the  land  that  loveth  silence."* 

There  is  no  historical  means  of  determining  what 
writings  of  Solomon  arc  preserved  in  the  Bible  and 
even  in  the  apocryphal  books.  One  may  feel  that 
Goethe  recognised  a  brother  spirit  in  thait  far  epoch 
when  he  selected  for  his  proverb  : 

"Apples  of  gold  in  chased  work  of  silver, 
A  word  smoothly  spoken." 

Koheleth  too  appreciated  this,  and  also  (x.  12)  uses 
almost  literally  Proverbs  xii.  18,  "The  tongue  of  the 
wise  is  gentleness."  (Compare  Shakespeare's  words, 
"Let  gentleness  my  strong  enforcement  be.")  The 
lines  previously  cited,  "Rejoice  O  young  man,  etc.,"  are 
also  probably  quoted,  as  they  are  given  in  poetical 
quatrains.  There  are  many  of  these  quatrains  intro- 
duced into  the  book,  from  the  prose  context  of  which 
the}'  differ  in  style  and  sometimes  in  sense. 

In  none  of  these  metrical  quotations  (as  I  believe 
them  to  be)  is  there  any  belief  in  God,  the  only  instance 

*  Job  and  Solotitou,  or  the  Wisdom  of  the  Old  Testament.  By  T.  K. 
Cheyne.  (1887.)  Those  wlio  wisli  to  study  the  Solomonic  liteiature  sliould 
read  this  e.\cellent  work.  It  is  very  probable,  although  Professor  Cheyne 
does  not  suggest  this,  that  a  dramatic  "Morality"  from  which  Job  was 
evolxed,  was  imported  by  Solomon  along  with  the  gold  of  Ophir  from  some 
Or.ental  land. 


Io8  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

in  which  the  word  "God"  is  mentioned  being  an  ironical 
maxim  about  the  danger  coming  from  monarchs  be- 
cause of  their  oaths  to  their  God,  with  whom  they 
identify  their  own  ways  and  wishes.  Such  seems  to  me 
the  meaning  of  the  lines  (viii.  2,  4)  which  Dillon  trans- 
lates— 

"The  wise  man  harkens  to  the  king's  command, 
By  reason  of  the  oath  to  God. 
Mighty  is  the  word  of  the  monarch : 
Who  dares  ask  him,  'What  dost  thou?'" 

With  this  compare  Proverbs  xxi.  i,  "The  king's  heart 
is  in  the  hand  of  the  Lord  (Jahveh)  as  the  water- 
courses; he  turneth  it  whithersoever  he  will."  This 
proverb  is  evidently  by  a  Jahvist,  and  Koheleth  quotes 
another  which  signifies  rather  "jahveh  is  in  the  king's 
caprice."  But  he  adopts  the  neighbouring  proverb,  "To 
do  justice  and  judgment  is  more  acceptable  to  Jahveh 
than  sacrifice."  Koheleth  says,  and  this  is  not  quo-ted — 
"To  draw  near  to  (God)  in  order  to  learn,  is  better 
than  the  offering  of  sacrifices  by  fools." 

Although  the  verses  quoted  by  Maurice  to  Tennyson 
(xii,  13,  14)  are  not  genuinely  in  Koheleth  they  corre- 
spond with  sentences  in  the  genuine  text  of  very  dif- 
ferent import.  Koheleth,  though  his  quotations  are 
godless,  believes  there  is  a  God,  and  a  formidable  one. 
Sometimes  he  refers  to  him  as  Fate,  sometimes  as  the 
unknowable,  but  as  without  moral  quality.  "To  the 
just  men  that  happen eth  which  should  befall  wrong- 
doers ;  and  that  happeneth  for  criminals  which  should  be 
the  lot  of  the  upright"  (viii.  14),  and  "neither  (God's) 
love  nor  hatred  doth  a  man  foresee"  (ix.  i),  God  has 
set  prosperity  and  adversity  side  by  side  for  the  express 


KOHELETH  {ECCLESIASTES).  109 

purpose  of  hiding  Himself  from  human  knowledge  (vii. 
14)  ;  not,  alas,  as  the  Yalkut  Koheleth  suggests,  in  order 
that  one  may  help  the  other.  God  does  benefit  those 
who  please  him,  and  punish  those  who  displease  him ; 
this  is  'good'  and  'evil'  to  Him;  but  it  has  no  relation 
with  the  humanly  good  and  evil  (viii.  11-14).  As  it 
is  evident  that  God's  favor  is  not  secured  by  good  works 
nor  his  disfavor  incurred  by  evil  works,  a  prudent  man 
will  consider  that  it  may  perhaps  be  a  matter  of  eti- 
quette, and  will  be  punctilious,  especially  "in  the  house 
of  God" ;  he  will  not  speak  rashly  and  then  hope  to 
escape  by  saying  "it  was  rashness."  His  words  had 
better  be  few,  and  if  he  makes  any  vow  (which  may 
well  be  avoided)  he  should  perform  it.  But  as  for 
practical  life  and  conduct,  God,  or  fate,  is  clearly  in- 
different to  it,  consequently  let  a  man  eat  his  bread  and 
quaff  his  wine  with  joy,  love  his  wife, — the  best  portion 
of  his  lot, — and  whatever  his  hand  findeth  to  do  that  do 
with  vigor,  remembering  that  "there  is  no  work,  nor 
thought,  nor  knowledge,  nor  wisdom,  in  the  inevitable 
grave." 

Such  is  Koheleth's  conception  of  life,  which,  except 
so  far  as  it  is  marred  by  a  vague  notion  of  Fate  which 
is  fatal  to  philanthropy,  is  not  very  different  from  the 
idea  growing  in  our  own  time.  "The  All  is  a  never- 
ceasing  whirl"  (i.  8),  and  Koheleth  advises  that  each 
individual  man  try  to  make  what  little  circle  of  happi- 
ness he  can  around  him.  "O  my  heart !"  says  Omar 
Khayyam,  "thou  wilt  never  penetrate  the  mysteries  of 
the  heavens;  thou  wilt  never  reach  that  culminating 
point  of  wisdom  which  the  intrepid  omniscients  have 
attained.     Resign  thyself  then  to  make  what  little  para- 


no  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

dise  thou  canst  here  below.  As  for  that  close-barred 
seraglio  beyond  thou  shalt  arrive  there — or  thou  shalt 
not !" 

It  is,  however,  impossible  for  any  church  or  priest- 
hood to  be  maintained  on  any  such  principles.  Where 
mankind  believe  with  Koheleth  that  whatever  God  does 
is  forever,  that  nothing  can  be  superadded  to  it  nor 
aught  be  taken  away ;  and  that  God  has  so  contrived 
that  man  must  fear  Him ;  they  will  have  no  use  for  any 
paraphernalia  for  softening  the  irrevocable  decrees  of 
a  Judgment  Day  already  past.  But  Koheleth's  arrows, 
feathered  with  wit  and  eloquence,  were  logically  shot 
from  the  Jahvist  arquebus.  It  was  Jahveh  himself  who 
proudly  claimed  that  he  created  good  and  evil,  and  that 
if  there  were  evil  in  a  city  it  was  his  work.  It  was 
Jahveh's  own  prophet,  Isaiah,  who  cried  (Ixiii.  17), 
"O  Lord,  why  dost  Thou  make  us  to  err  from  Thy 
ways,  and  hardenest  our  heart  from  Thy  fear?" 

What  then  could  Jahvism  say  when  a  time  arrived 
wherein  it  must  defend  itself  against  a  Jahveh-created 
world  ? 


CHAPTER    XI. 

WISDOM    (ECCLESIASTICUS    ). 

It  was  necessary  that  Koheleth  should  be  answered, 
but  who  was  competent  for  this?  A  fable  had  been 
invented  of  a  Solomonic  serpent  who  had  tempted  Eve 
to  taste  the  fruit  of  knowledge  which,  when  the  man 
shared  it,  brought  a  curse  on  the  earth,  but  the  canon- 
ical prophets  do  not  appear  to  have  heard  of  it,  and  at 
any  rate  it  was  too  late  in  the  day  to  meet  fact  with 
fable.  Nor  had  Jahveh's  whirlwind-answer  to  Job 
proved  effectual.  However,  some  sort  of  answer  did 
come,  and  significantly  enough  it  had  to  come  from 
Koheleth's  own  quarter,  the  Wisdom  school.  Pure 
Jahvism  had  not  brains  enough  for  the  task. 

The  apocryphal  book  "Ecclesiasticus"  is  the  antidote 
to  Ecclesiastes.  (These  are  the  Christian  names  given 
to  the  two  books.)  This  book,  bearing  the  simple  title 
"Wisdom,"  compiled  and  partly  written  by  Jesus  Ben 
Sira  early  in  the  second  century  B.  C,  is  as  a  whole 
much  more  than  an  oflfset  to  Koheleth.  It  is  a  great 
though  unintentional  literary  monument  to  Solomon, 
and  it  is  the  book  of  reconciliation,  or  so  intended, 
between  Solomonism  and  Jahvism, — or,  as  we  should 
now  say,  between  philosophy  and  theology. 

The  newly  discovered  original  Hebrew  of  Ecclesias- 
ticus xxxix.  15.  xlix.  II,  published  by  the  Claren- 
don Press  in  1897,  enables  us  to  read  correctly  for  the 


112  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

first  time  the  portraiture  of  Solomon  in  xlvii.,  with  the 
assistance  of  Wace  and  other  scholars : 

12.  After  him  [David]  rose  up  a  wise  son,  and  for  his 
[David's]  sake  he  dwelt  in  quiet. 

13.  Solomon  reigned  in  days  of  prosperity,  and  was 
honoured,  and  God  gave  rest  to  him  round  about  that  he  might 
build  an  house  in  his  name,  and  prepare  his  sanctuary  for  ever. 

14.  How  wast  thou  wise  in  thy  youth,  and  didst  overflow 
with  instruction  like  the  Nile ! 

15.  The  earth  (was  covered  by  thy  soul)  and  thou  didst 
celebrate  song  in  the  height. 

16.  Thy  name  went  far  unto  the  islands,  and  for  thy  peace 
thou  wast  beloved. 

17.  The  countries  marvelled  at  thee  for  thy  songs,  and 
proverbs,  and  parables,  and  interpretations. 

18.  Thou  wast  called  by  the  glorious  name  which  is  called 
over  Israel. 

i8a.  Thou  didst  gather  gold  as  tin,  and  didst  gather  silver  as 
lead. 

19.  But  thou  gavest  thy  loins  unto  women,  and  lettest  them 
have  dominion  over  thy  body. 

20.  Thou  didst  stain  thy  honour  and  pollute  thy  seed;  so 
that  thou  broughtest  wrath  upon  thy  children,  that  they  should 
groan  in  their  beds. 

21.  That  the  kingdom  should  be  divided:  and  out  of 
Ephraim  ruled  a  rebel  kingdom. 

22.  But  the  Lord  will  never  leave  off  his  mercy,  neither 
shall  any  of  his  words  perish,  neither  will  he  abolish  the  poster- 
ity of  his  elect,  and  the  seed  of  him  that  loveth  him  he  will 
not  take  away:  wherefore  he  gave  a  remnant  unto  Jacob,  and 
out  of  him  a  root  unto  David. 

23.  Thus  rested  Solomon  with  his  fathers,  and  of  his  seed 
he  left  behind  him  Rehoboam  [of  the  lineage  of  Amnion], 
ample  in  foolishness  and  lacking  understanding,  who  by  his 
council  let  loose  the  people. 

In  the  last  sentence  I  have  inserted  in  crochets  an 
alternative  reading  of  Fritzsche  for  the  three. words 


WISDOM  {ECCLESIASTIC trs).  113 

that  follow.  (Rehoboam's  Ammonite  mother  was 
Naamah.) 

It  will  be  noticed  that  early  in  the  second  century 
B.  C.  there  remained  no  trace  of  the  anathemas  on  Solo- 
mon for  his  foreign  or  his  idolatrous  wives.  He  is  now 
simply  accused  of  being  too  fond  of  women, — a  charge 
not  known  to  the  canonical  books. 

The  verse  18  attests  the  correctness  of  the  view 
taken  of  the  forty-fifth  Psalm  in  chapter  III.,  writ- 
ten before  this  Clarendon  Press  volume  appeared.  It 
thus  becomes  certain  that  the  Psalm  was  recognised  as 
written  in  Solomon's  time,  and  that  it  was  he  who  was 
there  addressed  as  "God"  ("the  glorious  name"). 

The  mention  of  this  fact  in  "Wisdom,"  and  the 
enthusiasm  pervading  every  sentence  of  the  tribute  to 
Solomon,  despite  his  alleged  sensuality,  supply  con- 
clusive evidence  that  the  cult  of  Solomon  had  for  more 
than  eight  centuries  been  continuous,  that  it  was  at 
length  prevailing,  and  that  it  had  become  necessary  for 
a  broad  wing  of  Jahvism  to  include  the  Solomonic 
worldly  wisdom  and  ethics. 

Jesus  Ben  Sira  states  that  he  found  a  book  written  by 
his  learned  grandfather,  whose  name  was  also  Jesus, 
who  had  studied  many  works  of  "our  fathers,"  and 
added  to  them  writings  of  his  own.  The  anonymous 
preface  states  that  Sira,  son  of  the  first  Jesus,  left  it  to 
his  son,  and  that  "this  Jesus  did  imitate  Solomon." 

It  is  not  said  that  Sira  contributed  anything  to  this 
composite  work,  yet  there  appear  to  be  three  minds  in 
it.  There  is  a  fine  and  free  philosophy  which  savors 
of  the  earliest  traditions  of  the  Solomonic  School ;  there 
is  an  exceptionally  morose  Jahvism ;  and  there  is  also 


114  SOLOMONIC   LITERATURE. 

mysticism,  an  attempt  to  rationalise  and  soften  the 
Jahvism,  and  to  solemnise  the  philosophy,  so  as  to  blend 
them  in  a  kind  of  harmonious  religion.  I  cannot  he]p 
feeling  that  Sira  or  some  friend  of  his  must  have  in- 
serted the  Jahvism  between  the  grandfather  and  the 
grandson. 

However  this  may  be,  it  is  evident  that  Jesus  Ben 
Sira  was  too  reverent  to  seriously  alter  anything  in  the 
volume  before  him,  for  the  contrast  is  startling  between 
the  hard  Jahvism  and  the  philosophy  of  life.  Their 
inclusion  in  one  work  is  like  the  union  of  oil  and  vine- 
gar. The  Jahvism  is  curiously  bald  :  fear  Jahveh,  keep 
his  commandments,  pay  your  tithes,  say  your  prayers, 
be  severe  with  your  children  (especially  daughters), 
never  play  with  them,  guard  your  wife  vigilantly,  flog 
your  servants.  The  philosophy  is  quite  incongruous 
with  this  formalism  and  rigidity,  most  of  the  maxims 
being  elaborated  with  care,  and  only  proverbs  in  form. 
Some  of  them  are  almost  Shakespearian  in  artistic 
expression : 

"Pipe  and  harp  make  sweet  the  song,  but  a  sincere  tongue 
is  above  them  both." 

"Wisdom  hid,  and  treasure  hoarded,  what  value  is  in 
either?" 

"The  fool's  heart  is  in  his  mouth,  the  wise  man's  mouth  is 
in  his  heart." 

"There  is  no  riches  above  a  sound  bod}',  and  no  joy  above 
that  of  the  heart." 

"Whoso  regardeth  dreams  is  as  one  who  grasps  at  his 
shadow." 

"The  evil  man  cursing  Satan  is  but  cursing  himself." 

"The  bars  of  Wisdom  shall  be  thy  fortress,  her  chains  thy 
robe  of  honour." 

About  the  rendering  of  xli.  15  there  is  some  doubt, 
and  I  give  this  conjecture  : 


WISDOM  {ECCLESIASTICUS).  115 

Better  the  (ignorant)  that  hideth  his  folly,  than  the 
(learned)  who  hideth  his  wisdom. 

In  the  Bible  which  belonged  to  the  historian  Gibbon, 
loaned  by  the  late  General  Meredith  Read  to  the  Gib- 
bon exhibition  in  London,  I  observed  a  pencil  mark 
around  these  sentences  in  "Wisdom": 

"He  that  buildeth  his  house  with  other  men's  money,  is  like 
one  that  gathereth  stones  for  the  tomb  of  his  own  burial." 

"He  that  is  not  wise  will  not  be  taught,  but  there  is  a  wis- 
dom that  multiplieth  bitterness." 

To  Jesus  Ben  Sira  we  may,  I  believe,  ascribe  the 
following : 

"Glorifying  God,  exalt  him  as  far  as  your  thought  can  reach, 
yet  you  will  never  attain  to  his  height :  praising  him,  put  forth 
all  your  powers,  be  not  weary,  yet  ever  will  they  fall  short. 
Who  hath  seen  him  that  he  can  tell  us  ?  Who  can  describe  him 
as  he  is?  Let  us  still  be  rejoicing  in  him,  for  we  shall  not 
search  him  out:  he  is  great  beyond  his  works." 

This  has  an  interesting  correspondence  with  the 
beautiful  rapture  of  the  Persian  Sadi : 

"They  who  pretend  to  be  informed  are  ignorant,  for  they 
who  have  known  him  have  not  recovered  their  senses.  O  thou 
who  towerest  above  the  heights  of  imagination,  thought,  or 
conjecture,  surpassing  all  that  has  been  related,  and  excelling 
all  that  we  have  heard  or  read,  the  banquet  is  ended,  the  con- 
gregation is  dismissed,  and  life  draws  to  a  close,  and  we  still 
rest  in  our  first  encomium  of  thee!" 

To  Jesus  Ben  Sira  may  be  safely  ascribed  the  pas- 
sages that  bear  witness  to  the  pressure  of  problems 
which,  though  old,  appear  in  new  forms  under  Hellenic 
influences.  They  grow  urgent  and  threaten  the  foun- 
dations of  Jahvism.  It  was  no  longer  sufficient  to  say 
that  Jahveh  rewarded  virtue  and  piety,  antl  i)unishc'(l 
vice  and  impiety  in  this  world.     Job  had  demanded  the 


Il6  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

evidence  for  this,  and  the  centuries  had  brought  none. 
Job  was  awarded  some  recompense  in  this  world,  but 
that  happy  experience  did  not  attend  other  virtuous  suf- 
ferers. 

The  doctrine  of  one  writer  in  "Wisdom"  is  simply 
predestination.  Paul's  potter-and-clay  similitude  is  an- 
ticipated, and  the  Parsi  dualism  curiously  adapted  to 
Jahvist  monotheism :  "Good  is  set  against  evil,  life 
against  death,  the  godly  against  the  sinner  and  the  sin- 
ner against  the  godly  :  look  through  all  the  works  of  the 
Most  High  and  there  are  two  and  two,  one  against 
another."  But  the  liberal  son  of  Sira  is  more  optimist : 
"All  things  are  double,  one  against  another,  but  he 
hath  made  nothing  imperfect :  one  thing  establisheth 
the  good  of  another."  Freedom  of  the  will  is  asserted  : 
"Say  not,  he  hath  caused  me  to  err,  for  he  hath  no  need 
of  the  evildoer.     He  made  man  from  the  beginning  and 

left  him  in  the  hand  of  his  (own)  counsel 

He  hath  set  fire  and  water  before  thee,  stretch  forth 
thy  hand  to  whichever  thou  wilt.  Before  man  is  the 
living  and  the  not-living,  and  whichever  he  liketh  shall 
be  given  him." 

But  the  doctrine  of  human  free  agency  is  pregnant 
with  polemics ;  it  has  so  been  in  Christian  history,  as  is 
proved  by  the  Pelagian,  Arminian,  Jesuit,  and  Wes- 
leyan  movements.  There  are  indications  in  Ben  Sira's 
work  that  the  foundations  of  Jahvism  were  threatened 
by  a  moral  scepticism.  His  own  celebration  of  the 
Fathers  was  enough  to  bring  into  dreary  contrast  the 
tragedies  of  his  own  time  and  glories  of  the  Past,  when 
"Judah  and  Israel  dwelt  safely,  every  man  under  his 
vine  and  fig-tree,  from  Dan  even  to  Beer-sheba,  all  the 
days  of  Solomon."     What  shelter  now  in  the  divine 


WISDOM  (ECCLES/AST/C US).  II7 

fig-tree,  which  could  bear  nothing  but  legendary  or  pre- 
dictive leaves?  The  curse  on  the  barren  tree  was  near 
at  hand  when  Jesus  Ben  Sira  uttered  his  pathetic  com- 
plaint, veiled  in  prayer : 

"Have  mercy  on  us,  O  Lord  God  of  all,  and  regard  us ! 
Send  thy  fear  on  all  the  nations  that  seek  thee  not ;  lift  thy 
hand  against  them,  let  them  see  thy  power !  As  thou  wast 
(of  old)  sanctified  in  us  before  them,  be  thou  (now)  magnified 
among  them  before  us ;  and  let  them  know  thee,  as  we  have 
known  thee, — that  there  is,  O  God,  no  God  but  thou  alone ! 
Show  new  signs,  more  strange  wonders ;  glorify  thy  hand  and 
thy  right  arm.  that  they  may  publish  thy  wondrous  works ! 
Raise  up  indignation,  pour  out  wrath,  remove  the  adversary, 
destroy  the  enemy :  hasten !  remember  thy  covenant,  and  let 
them  witness  thy  wonderful  works!" 


CHAPTER    XII. 

THE    WISDOM    OF   SOLOMON. 

Somewhat  more  than  a  century  after  Jesus  Ben 
Sira's  work,  came  an  answer  to  his  prayer,  not  from 
above  but  from  beneath,  in  the  so-called  "Psalter  of 
Solomon."  This  is  no  wisdom  book,  and  need  not 
detain  us.  It  is  mainly  a  hash — one  may  say  a  mess — 
made  up  out  of  the  Psalms;  and  though  some  of  the 
allusions,  apparently  to  Pompey  and  others,  may  possess 
value  in  other  connexions,  the  work  need  only  be 
mentioned  here  as  an  indication  of  the  fate  which  Solo- 
mon met  at  the  hands  of  Jahvism.  The  name  of  the 
Wisest  of  his  race  on  this  vulgar  production  is  like  the 
doggerel  on  Shakespeare's  tomb,  and  the  fling  at  Eng- 
land's greatest  poet  written  on  the  tomb  of  his  daugh- 
ter,— "Wise  to  salvation  was  good  Mistriss  Hall,"  etc. 

Before  passing,  it  may  be  remarked  that  the  obvious 
allusions  to  Christ  in  this  Psalter  seem  clearly  spurious, 
and  for  one  I  cannot  regard  as  other  than  a  late  inter- 
polation verse  24  of  Psalter-Psalm  xvii. :  "Behold,  O 
God,  and  raise  up  unto  them  their  king,  the  Son  of 
David,  in  the  time  which  thou,  O  God,  knowest,  that  he 
may  reign  over  Israel  thy  servant."  There  is  nothing 
in  the  literature  of  the  time  before  or  after  that  would 
warrant  the  concession  to  this  ranting  Salvationist 
(B.  C.  70-60)  of  an  idea  which  would  then  have  been 
original.     The  verse  has  the  accent  of  a  Second  Ad- 

118 


THE    WISDOM  OF  SOLOMON.  I  19 

ventist  a  century  later.  The  title  "Son  of  David"  oc- 
curs even  in  the  New  Testament  but  sixteen  times. 

The  Psalter  is  in  spirit  thoroughly  Jahvist,  narrow, 
hard,  without  one  ray  of  Solomonic  wisdom  or  wit.  It 
may  fairly  be  regarded  as  the  sepulchre  of  the  wise  man 
whose  name  it  bears  (though  not  in  its  text).  Jahvism 
has  here  triumphed  over  the  whole  cult  of  Wisdom. 

But  Solomon  is  not  to  rest  there.  He  is  again 
evoked,  though  not  yet  in  his  ancient  secular  greatness, 
by  the  next  work  that  claims  our  attention. 

This  last  of  the  Wisdom  Books  bears  the  heading 
"Wisdom  of  Solomon"  (Sophia  Solomontos)  and  gives 
unmistakable  identifications  of  the  King,  though  herein 
also  the  name  "Solomon"  appears  only  in  the  title. 
Perhaps  the  writer  may  have  wished  to  avoid  ex- 
citing the  ridicule  or  resentment  of  the  Solomonists 
by  plainly  connecting.the  name  of  their  founder  with  a 
retractation  of  all  the  secularism  and  the  heresies 
anciently  associated  with  him.  The  aristocratic  Sad- 
ducccs,  who  believed  not  in  immortality,  derived  their 
name  from  Solomon's  famous  chaplain,  Zadok. 

This  "Wisdom  of  Solomon"  probably  appeared  not 
far  from  the  first  year  of  our  era.  It  is  written  in 
almost  classical  Greek,  is  full  of  striking  and  poetic 
interpretations  and  spiritualisations  of  Jewish  legends, 
and  transfused  with  a  piety  at  once  warm  and  mystical. 
Solomon  is  summoned  much  in  the  way  that  the  "Wan- 
dering Jew,"  Ahasuerus,  is  called  up  in  Shelley's 
"Prometheus,"  yet  not  quite  allegorically,  to  testify  con- 
cerning the  Past,  and  concerning  the  mysteries  of  the 
invisible  world.  He  has  left  behind  his  secularist  Prov- 
erbs and  his  worldly  wisdom ;  but  though  he  now  rises 
as  a  prophet  of  otherworldliness,  not  a  word  is  uttered 


I20  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

inconsistent  with  his  having  been  a  saint  from  the  be- 
ginning, albeit  "chastised"  and  "proved."  In  fact  he 
gives  his  spiritual  autobiography,  which  is  that  of  a 
Son  of  God  wise  and  "undefiled"  from  childhood.  His 
burden  is  to  warn  the  kings  and  judges  of  the  world  of 
the  blessedness  that  awaits  the  righteous, — the  misery 
that  awaits  the  unrighteous, — beyond  the  grave. 

The  work  impresses  me  as  having  been  written  by 
one  who  had  long  been  an  enthusiastic  Solomonist,  but 
who  had  been  spiritually  revolutionised  by  attaining  the 
new  belief  of  immortality.  It  does  not  appear  as  if  the 
apparition  of  Solomon  was  to  this  writer  a  simple  im- 
agination. Solomon  seems  to  be  alive,  or  rather  as  if 
never  dead.  "For  thou  (God)  hast  power  of  life  and 
death :  thou  leadest  to  the  gates  of  Hades,  and  bringest 
up  again."  "The  giving  heed  unto  her  (Wisdom's) 
laws  is  the  assurance  of  incorruption ;  and  incorruption 
maketh  us  near  unto  God  :  therefore  the  desire  of  Wis- 
dom bringeth  to  a  Kingdom." 

The  Jewish  people  idealised  Solomon's  reign  long 
before  they  idealised  the  man  himself ;  and  indeed  he 
had  to  reach  his  halo  under  personified  epithets  derived 
from  his  fame, — as  "Melchizedek,"  and  "Prince  of 
Peace."  The  nation  sighed  for  the  restoration  of  his 
splendid  empire,  but  could  not  describe  their  Coming 
Man  as  a  returning  Solomon,  because  the  priests  and 
prophets, — a  gentry  little  respected  by  the  Wise  Man, — 
steadily  ascribed  all  the  national  misfortunes  to  the 
shrines  built  to  other  deities  than  Jahveh  by  the  royal 
Citizen  of  the  World.  Thus  grew  such  prophetic  in- 
directions as  "the  House  of  David,"  "Jesse's  branch," 
and  finally  "Son  of  David." 

But  this  idea  of  the  returning  hero  does  not  appear 


THE    WISDOM   OF  SOLOMO.V.  1 21 

to  have  been  original  with  any  Semitic  people  ;  it  is  first 
found  among  them  in  the  Oriental  book  of  Job,  who 
longs  to  sleep  in  some  cavern  for  ages,  then  reappear, 
and,  even  if  his  flesh  were  shrivelled,  find  that  his  good 
name  was  vindicated  (xiv.)-  This  idea  of  the  Sleeping 
Hero  (which  is  traced  in  many  examples  in  my  work 
on  The  Wandering  Jciv)  appears  to  have  gained  its 
earliest  expression  in  the  legend  of  King  Yima,  in 
Persia, — the  original  of  such  sleepers  as  Barbarossa  and 
King  Arthur,  as  well  as  of  the  legendary  Enoch,  Moses, 
and  Elias,  who  were  to  precede  or  attend  the  revived 
Son  of  David.  Solomon,  whose  name  probably  gave 
Jerusalem  the  peaceful  half  of  its  name  (Salem)  would 
no  doubt  have  been  central  among  the  "Undying  Ones" 
had  it  not  been  for  the  Parliament  of  Religions  he  set 
up  in  that  city.  But  he  had  to  wait  a  thousand  years  for 
his  honorable  fame  to  awaken. 

In  the  "Wisdom  of  Solomon"  the  Queen  of  Shcba  is 
also  recalled  into  life.  She  is,  as  Renan  pointed  out, 
transfigured  in  the  personified  Wisdom,  and  her  gifts 
become  mystical.  "All  good  things  together  came  to 
me  with  her,"  and  Wisdom  goeth  before  them:  and  I 
knew  not  that  she  was  the  mother  of  them."  She  is 
amiable,  beautiful,  and  gave  him  his  knowledge : 

"All  such  things  as  are  secret  or  manifest,  them  I 
knew.  For  Wisdom,  which  is  the  worker  of  all  things, 
taught  me :  for  in  her  is  an  understanding  spirit,  holy, 
one  only,  manifold ;  su1)tle,  lively,  clear,  undefiled,  plain, 
not  subject  to  hurt,  loving  the  thing  that  is  good,  quick, 
which  cannot  be  letted,  ready  to  do  good,  kind  to  man, 
steadfast,  sure,  free  from  care,  having  all  power,  over- 
seeing all  things,  and  pervading  all  intellectual,  pure, 
and  most  subtle  spirits.     For  Wisdom  is  more  moving 


122  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

than  motion  itself ;  she  passeth  and  goeth  through  all 
things  by  reason  of  her  pureness.  For  she  is  the  breath 
of  the  power  of  God,  and  a  pure  influence  flowing  from 
the  glory  of  the  Almighty :  therefore  can  no  impure 
thing  fall  into  her.  For  she  is  the  brightness  of  the 
everlasting  light,  the  unspotted  mirror  of  the  power  of 
God,  and  the  image  of  his  goodness.  And  alone,  she 
can  do  all  things ;  herself  unchanged,  she  maketh  all 
things  new ;  and  in  all  ages,  entering  into  holy  souls, 
she  maketh  them  intimates  of  God,  and  prophets.  For 
God  loveth  only  him  who  dwelleth  with  Wisdom.  She 
is  more  beautiful  than  the  sun,  and  above  all  the  order  of 
stars ;  compared  with  the  light  she  is  found  before  it, — 
for  after  light  cometh  night,  but  evil  shall  not  prevail 
against  Wisdom."     (vii.  21-30.) 

In  Sophia  Soloinontos  Solomon  relates  his  espousal 
of  Wisdom,  who  sat  beside  the  throne  of  God  (ix.  4). 
But  there  remains  with  God  a  detective  Wisdom  called 
the  Holy  Spirit.  Wisdom  and  the  Holy  Spirit  have 
dififerent  functions.  "Thy  counsel  who  hath  known 
except  thou  give  Wisdom,  and  send  thy  Holy  Spirit 
from  above?"  This  verse  (ix.  17)  is  followed  by  two 
chapters  (x.,  xi.)  relating  the  work  of  Wisdom  through 
past  ages  as  a  Saviour.  But  then  comes  an  account  of 
the  severe  chastening  functions  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
"For  thine  incorruptible  Spirit  is  in  all  things  (i.  e., 
nothing  is  concealed  from  her),  therefore  chastenest 
thou  them  by  little  and  little  that  ofifend,"  etc. 
(xii.  I,  2.) 

There  is  here  a  slight  variation  in  the  historic  devel- 
opment of  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  one  so  pregnant  with 
results  that  it  may  be  well  to  refer  to  some  of  the  earlier 


THE    WISDOM   OF  SOLOMON.  1 23 

Hebrew  conceptions.  The  Spirit  of  God  descril^ed  in 
Genesis  i.  2,  as  "brooding"  over  the  waters  was  evi- 
dently meant  to  represent  a  detached  agent  of  the  deity. 
The  legend  is  obviously  related  to  that  of  the  dove 
going  forth  over  the  waters  of  the  deluge.  The  dove 
probably  acquired  its  symbolical  character  as  a  messen- 
ger between  earth  and  heaven  from  the  marvellous 
powers  of  the  carrier  pigeon — powers  well  known  in 
ancient  Egypt — it  also  appears  that  its  cooing  was  be- 
lieved to  be  an  echo  on  earth  of  the  voice  of  God.*  We 
have  already  seen  (viii.)  that  Wisdom,  when  first  per- 
sonified, was  identified  with  this  "brooding"  spirit  over 
the  surface  of  the  waters,  and  also  that  in  a  second 
(Jahvist)  personification  she  is  a  severe  and  reproving 
agent.  But  in  the  second  verse  of  Genesis  there  is  a 
darkness  on  the  abyss,  and  both  darkness  and  abyss 
were  personified.  In  the  rigid  development  of  mono- 
theism all  of  these  beings  were  necessarily  regarded  as 
agents  of  Jahveh — monopolist  of  all  powers.  We  thus 
find  such  accounts  as  that  in  i  Samuel  16,  w'here  the 
Spirit  of  Jahveh  departed  from  Saul  and  an  evil  Spirit 
from  Jahveh  troubled  him. 

Although  the  Spirit  of  God  was  generally  supposed 
to  convey  miraculous  knowledge,  especially  of  future 
events,  and  superior  skill,  it  is  not,  I  believe,  in  any 
book  earlier  than  Sophia  Solomontos  definitely  ascribed 
the  function  of  a  detective.  There  is  in  Ecclesiastes 
(x.  20)  a  passage  which  suggests  the  carrier:  "Curse 
not  the  King,  no,  not  in  thy  thought ;  and  curse  not  the 
rich  even  in  thy  bedchamber;  for  a  bird  of  the  air  shall 
carry  the  voice,  and  that  which  hath  wings  shall  tell  the 

*  Bath  Kol,— "  daughter  of  a  voice." 


124  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

matter."*  This  was  evidently  in  the  mind  of  the  writer 
of  Sophia  Solomoiitos  in  the  following  verses: 

Wisdom  is  a  loving  Spirit,  and  will  not  (cannot?) 
acquit  a  blasphemer  of  his  words :  for  God  is  a  witness 
of  his  reins,  and  a  true  beholder  of  his  heart,  and  a 
hearer  of  his  tongue ;  for  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  filleth 
the  world,  and  that  which  containeth  all  things  hath 
knowledge  of  the  voice ;  therefore  he  that  speaketh 
unrighteous  things  cannot  be  hid,  neither  shall  venge- 
ance when  it  punisheth,  pass  by  him.  For  inquisition 
shall  be  made  into  the  counsels  of  the  ungodly ;  the 
sound  of  his  words  shall  come  unto  the  Lord  for  the 
disclosure  of  his  wickedness,  the  ear  of  jealousy  heareth 
all  things,  and  the  sound  even  of  murmurings  is  not 
secret." 

Here  we  have  the  origin  of  the  "unpardonable  sin." 
The  Holy  Spirit  detects  and  informs,  Jahveh  avenges, 
and  if  the  offence  is  blasphemy.  Wisdom,  the  Saviour, 
cannot  acquit  (as  the  "Loving  Spirit"  of  God  it  is  for 
her  ultra  vires).  This  detective  Holy  Spirit  appears 
to  be  an  evolution  from  both  Wisdom  and  Satan  the 
Accuser,  in  Job  a  Son  of  God.  By  associating  with 
Solomon  on  earth.  Wisdom  was  without  the  severe 
holiness  essential  to  Jahvist  conceptions  of  divine  gov- 
ernment ;  in  other  words,  personified  Wisdom,  v/hose 
"delight  was  with  the  sons  of  men"  (Prov.  viii.  31) 
was  too  humanized  to  fulfil  the  conditions  necessary  for 
upholding  the  temple  at  a  time  when  penal  sanctions 
were  withdrawn  from  the  priesthood.  A  celestial  spy 
was  needed,  and  also  an  uncomfortable  Sheol,  if  the 
ancient  ordinances  and  sacrifices  were  to  be  preserved 

*This  may,  however,  have  been  flotsam  from  the  Orient.  Mahanshadha, 
a  sort  of  Solomon  in  Buddhist  tales  (see  ante  chap  ii),  had  a  wonderful  par- 
rot, Charaka.  which  he  employed  as  a  spy.  It  vevcTlcd  to  him  the  plot  to 
poison  King  Janaka,  whose  chief  Minister  he  was.    (.Tibetan  Talcs,  p.  i68.) 


THE    WISDOM    OF  SOLOMON.  125 

at  all  under  the  rule  of  Roman  liberty,  and  amid  the 
cosmopolitan  conditions  prevailing  at  Jerusalem,  and 
still  more  at  Alexandria.* 

With  regard  to  Wisdom  herself,  there  is  a  sentence 
which  requires  notice,  especially  as  no  unwcighed  word 
is  written  in  the  work  under  notice.  It  is  said,  "In 
that  she  is  conversant  with  God,  she  magnifieth  her 
nobility ;  yea,  the  Lord  of  all  things  himself  loved  her." 
(viii.  3).t  This  seems  to  be  the  germ  of  Philo's  idea 
of  Wisdom  as  the  Mother :  ''And  she,  receiving  the 
seed  of  God,  with  beautiful  birth-pangs  brought  forth 
this  world,  His  visible  Son,  only  and  well-beloved." 
The  writer  of  Sophia  Solouiontos  is  very  careful  to  be 
vague  in  speculations  of  this  kind,  while  suggesting 
inferences  with  regard  to  them.  Thus,  alluding  to 
Moses  before  Pharaoh,  he  says,  "She  (Wisdom)  en- 
tered into  the  servant  of  the  Lord,  and  withstood  dread- 
ful kings  in  wonders  and  signs"  (x.  16),  but  leaves  us 
to  mere  conjecture  as  to  whether  he  (the  writer)  still 
had  Wisdom  in  mind  when  writing  (xvii.  13)  of  the 
failure  of  these  enchantments  and  the  descent  of  the 
Almighty  Word,  for  the  destruction  of  the  first-born : 

"For  while  all  things  are  quiet  silence,  and  that  night 
was  in  the  midst  of  her  swift  course,  thine  Almighty 
Word  leaped  down  from  Heaven  out  of  thy  Royal 
throne,  as  a  fierce  man  of  war  into  the  midst  of  a  land 

*  M.  Didron  (Christian  Iconography,  Boliii's  ed.,  i.,  p.  464)  mentions  a 
picture  of  the  thirteenth  century  in  which  the  dove  moving  over  the  face  of 
the  waters  (Gen.  i)  is  black,  God  not  havinpyet  created  light.  It  may  be,  how- 
ever, that  the  meaia-val  idea  was  tliat  the  Holy  Ghost,  as  a  heavenly  spy,  was 
supposed  to  assume  the  color  of  the  night  in  order  to  detect  the  deeds  done 
in  d.irkness  without  itself  being  seen.  In  later  centuries  this  dark  dove  was 
siiown  at  the  car  of  magicians  and  idols,  the  inspirer  of  prophets  and  saints 
being  the  white  dove. 

t  The  amorous  relations  between  Ahuramazda,  the  deity,  and  Armaiti, 
geniusofthe  earth,  are  referred  to  ante  Chap.  VIIl.,  in  a  passage  from 
West's  Palahvi  Texts.  In  the  Vendidad  sne  is  sometimes  called  his 
daughter. 


126  SOLOMONIC   LITERATURE. 

of  destruction;  and  brought  thine  unfeigned  com- 
mandment as  a  sharp  sword,  and  standing  up  filled  all 
things  with  death ;  and  it  touched  the  heaven,  but  it 
stood  upon  the  earth."* 

The  Word  in  this  place   (  o  TzavToduvaiioz  (Too  h'tyoq  )   is 

clearly  reproduced  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews 
(iv.  12).  "The  Word  of  God  is  living,  and  active,  and 
sharper  than  any  two-edged  sword  ;"  and  the  same  mili- 
tary metaphor  accompanies  this  "Word"  into  Revela- 
tion xix.  13.  This  continuity  of  metaphor  has  appar- 
ently been  overlooked  by  Alford  {Greek  Testament, 
vol.  iv.,  p.  226)  who  regards  the  use  of  the  phrase 
"Word  of  God"  ( <>  loyo':  zoo  deou  )  as  linking  Revela- 
tion to  the  author  of  the  fourth  Gospel,  whereas  in  this 
Gospel  Logos  is  never  followed  by  "of  God,"  while  it  is 
so  followed  in  Hebrews  iv.  12. 

This  evolution  of  the  "Word"  is  clear.  In  the  "Wis- 
dom of  Solomon"  Wisdom  is  the  creative  Word  and  the 
Saviour.  The  Word  leaping  down  from  the  divine 
throne  and  bearing  the  sword  of  vengeance  is  more 
like  the  son  of  the  celestial  counterpart  of  Wisdom, 
namely,  the  detective  Holy  Spirit  (called  in  i.  5  "the 
Holy  Spirit  of  Discipline").  But  in  the  era  we  are 
studying,  all  words  by  able  writers  were  living  things, 
and  were  two-edged  swords,  and  long  after  they  who 
wrote  them  were  dead  went  on  with  active  and  sunder- 
ing work  undreamed  of  by  those  who  first  uttered  them. 

The  Zoroastrian  elements  which  we  remarked  in 
Jesus  Ben  Sira's  "Wisdom"  are  even  more  pronounced 
in  the  "Wisdom  of  Solomon."  The  Persian  worship- 
pers are  so  mildly  rebuked    (xiii.)    for  not  passing 

*  Cf.  Gospel  of  Peter:  "They  behold  three  men  coming  out  of  the 
tomb,  and  the  two  supporting  the  one,  and  the  cross  following  them,  and  the 
heads  of  the  two  reached  to  the  heavens,  and  that  of  hira  who  was  being  Jed 
went  above  the  heavens." 


THE    WISDOM  OF  SOLOMON.  1 27 

beyond  fire  and  star  to  the  "origin  of  beauty,"  that  one 
may  suppose  the  author,  probably  an  Alexandrian, 
must  have  had  friends  among  them.  At  any  rate  his 
conception  of  a  resplendent  God  is  Mazdean,  his  all- 
seeing  Holy  Spirit  is  the  Parsi  "Anahita,"  and  his 
Wisdom  is  Armaiti,  the  "loving  spirit"  on  earth,  the 
saviour  of  men.*  The  opposing  kingdoms  of  Ahura- 
mazda  and  Angromainyu,  and  especially  Zoroaster's 
original  division  of  the  universe  into  "the  living  and  the 
not-living,"  are  reflected  in  the  "Wisdom  of  Solomon," 
i.  13-16: 

"God  made  not  death :  neither  hath  he  pleasure  in  the 
destruction  of  the  living.  He  created  all  things  that 
they  might  have  their  being;  and  the  generations  of 
the  world  were  healthful;  and  there  (was)  no  poison 
of  destruction  in  them,  nor  (any)  kingdom  of  death  on 
the  earth  :  (for  righteousness  is  immortal)  :  but  ungodly 
men  with  their  deeds  and  words  evoked  Death  to  them  : 
when  they  thought  to  have  it  their  friend  they  con- 
sumed to  naught,  and  made  a  covenant  with  Death, 
being  fit  to  take  sides  with  it." 

In  the  moral  and  religious  evolution  which  we  have 
been  tracing  it  has  been  seen  that  the  utter  indifference 
of  the  Cosmos  to  human  good  and  evil,  right  and  wrong, 
was  the  theme  of  Job ;  that  in  Ecclesiastes  the  same 
was  again  declared,  and  the  suggestion  made  that  if  God 
helped  or  afflicted  men  it  must  depend  on  some  point 
of  etiquette  or  observance  unconnected  with  moral  con- 

*  Invoke,  O  Zoroaster,  the  powerful  Spirit  (Wind)  formed  bv  Mazda 
(Light)  and  Spcnta  Armaiti  (  earth-mother  ),  tiie  fair  daughter  of  Ah\ira- 
iiiazda.  Invoke,  O  Zoroaster,  my  Fravashi  (deathless  past),  who  am  Ahu- 
ramazda,  greatest,  fairest,  most  solid,  most  intelligent,  best  shapen,  highest 
in  purity,  whose  soul  is  tlie  holy  Word. 

"  Invoke  Mithra  (descending  light),  the  lord  of  wide  pastures,  a  god 
armed  with  beautiful  weap  )us,  with  the  most  glorious  of  all  weapons,  v;i  h 
the  most  fiend-sniiting  of  all  weaiions. 

"  Invoke  the  most  holy  glurious  word." — Z.endavesla.  (\'ciid.  Farg. 
.xix.  2) 


128  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

siderations,  so  that  man  need  not  omit  pleasure  but  only 
be  punctilious  when  in  the  temple ;  that  in  Jesus  Ben 
Sira's  contribution  to  his  fathers'  "Wisdom,"  the 
moral  character  of  God  was  maintained,  moral  evil 
regarded  as  hostile  to  God,  and  imaginary  sanctions 
invented,  accompanied  by  pleadings  with  God  to  indorse 
them  by  new  signs  and  wonders.  Such  signs  not 
appearing,  and  no  rewards  and  punishments  being 
manifested  in  human  life,  the  next  step  was  to  assign 
them  to  a  future  existence,  and  this  step  was  taken  in 
"Wisdom  of  Solomon."  .  There  remained  but  one  more 
necessity,  namely,  that  there  should  be  some  actual  evi- 
dence of  that  future  existence.  Agur's  question  had 
remained  unanswered — 

"Who  has  ascended  into  heaven  and  come  down  again? 
Such  an  one  would  I  question  about  God." 

To  this  the  reply  was  to  be  the  resurrection  from 
death  claimed  for  the  greatest  of  the  spiritual  race  of 
Solomon. 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

EPISTLE   TO    THE    HEBREWS    (a    SEQUEL   TO 
SOrilLV    SOLOMONTOS  ). 

In  a  Theocracy  the  birth  of  a  new  God  was  not  the 
mere  new  generalization  that  it  might  be  in  our  secular- 
ized century, — a  deification  of  the  Unknowable,  for  in- 
stance,— of  not  the  slightest  practical  or  moral  interest 
to  any  human  being.  Judea  was  the  bodily  incarna- 
tion, even  more  than  Islam  is  now,  of  a  deity  who  said, 
"I  am  the  Lord  and  there  is  none  else;  I  form  the 
light  and  create  darkness ;  I  make  peace,  and  create 
evil ;  I  the  Lord  do  all  these  things."  The  denial  of 
such  a  deity,  the  substitution  of  one  who  required 
neither  prayers,  sacrifices,  nor  intercessions,  could  not 
be  merely  theoretical.  It  must  involve  the  overthrow 
of  a  nationality  which  had  no  bond  of  unity  except  a 
book,  and  the  institutions  founded  on  that  book. 

Nor  did  the  theocratic  principle  admit  of  a  mere 
philosophical  opposition  to  its  institutions.  He  who 
touched  that  system  was  dealing  with  people  who,  in 
the  language  of  "Sophia  Solomontos"  were  "shut  up 
in  a  prison  without  iron  bars."  The  natural  advent 
of  the  anti-Jahvist  was  in  the  Temple  and  with  the 
words — 

He  hath  sent  me  to  herald  glad  news  to  the  poor, 
He  hath  sent  me  to  proclaim  deliverance  to  captives, 
And  recovering  of  sight  to  the  hlind, 
To  set  at  liherty  thcni  that  arc  hruised. 
129 


130  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

These  miseries  had  no  real  relation  to  the  social  or 
political  conditions  amid  which  their  phrases  and 
hymns  were  born,  but  to  a  burden  of  debts  to  a  jealous 
and  vindictive  omnipotence;  a  burden  not  of  actions 
really  wrong,  but  of  mysterious  offences,  related  to 
incomprehensible  ordinances  and  heavenly  etiquette. 
No  human  vices  are  so  malignant  as  inhuman  virtues. 
Bunyan,  in  depicting  Christian's  burden,  has,  with 
a  felicity  perhaps  unconscious,  made  it  a  pack  strapped 
on.  It  is  not  a  hunch,  not  any  part  of  the  pilgrim, 
and  had  he  possessed  the  courage  to  examine  it  there 
must  have  been  found  many  spiritual  nightmares  of 
the  race,  and  many  robust  English  virtues  turned  to 
sins  when  the  merry  and  honest  tinker  turned  retro- 
spective Rip  Van  Winkle,  and  dreamed  himself  back 
into  the  year  One.  The  burden  of  sins  on  the  poor 
Israelites  had  been  gradually  getting  lighter  under  the 
scepticism  of  the  Wisdom  school,  in  view  of  the  failure 
of  Jahveh  to  fulfil  the  menaces  and  sentences  of  the 
priesthood.  Conformity  was  secured  mainly  for  actual 
advantages  bestowed  by  the  synagogue,  or  its  terrors. 
But  the  discovery  of  the  doctrine  of  a  future  life  and  a 
day  of  judgment,  when  all  the  mysterious  "sins"  were 
to  be  settled  for,  while  smiled  at  by  the  Saducees,  made 
the  burden  of  the  ignorant  poor  intolerable.  Life  was 
passed  under  suspended  swords.  The  priesthood  had 
a  cowering  vassal  in  every  ignorant  human  being. 
The  time,  the  labour,  the  flocks  of  the  peasantry  were 
devoted,  but  it  was  all  a  "sweating"  process, — the  debts 
were  never  paid,  and  there  was  always  that  "certain 
fearful  expectation  of  judgment,  and  a  fierceness  of 
fire  which  shall  devour  the  adversaries."     No  doubt 


EPISTLE    TO    THE   HEBREWS.  13I 

even  the  learned  supposed  these  superstitions  useful  to 
keep  the  "masses"  in  order. 

But  one  day  a  scholarly  gentleman,  a  man  of  genius, 
was  moved  with  compassion  for  these  poor  lost  and 
priest-harried  sheep :  he  turned  aside  from  his  college 
and  his  rank,  and  became  their  shepherd ;  he  declared 
they  owed  no  duties  to  any  deity,  and  that  the  heavenly 
despot  they  so  dreaded  had  no  existence. 

A  modern  gentleman  in  a  fine  mansion  and  estate 
may  be  amused  at  Bunyan's  quaint  pilgrim,  reading 
in  a  book  and  discovering  that  he  was  in  a  City  of 
Destruction,  fleeing  with  a  burden  on  his  back,  and 
rejoicing  when  it  rolls  oflf  at  the  cross.  But  if  this 
gentleman  should  suddenly  receive  from  some  distant 
personage  papers  showing  that  his  estate  had  been 
entirely  mortgaged  by  Lis  father,  that  it  would  soon  be 
claimed  and  his  family  reduced  to  beggary,  he  might 
understand  the  City  of  Destruction.  And  if,  soon  after, 
some  visitor  arrived  to  state  that  the  holder  of  the 
mortgages  was  dead ;  that  those  claims  had  all  legally 
fallen  into  his  own  hands,  and  that  he  had  burnt  them, 
the  rolling  ofif  of  Christian's  burden  might  be  appre- 
ciated,— also  the  enthusiasm  of  the  personal  followers 
of  Jesus. 

But  one  might  further  imagine  a  host  of  hungry  law- 
yers, living  on  large  retainers,  not  being  quite  happy 
at  such  easy  settlements,  especially  if  the  generous  vis- 
itor were  found  wealthy  enough  to  go  about  buying  up 
and  burning  claims,  and  ending  litigation.  This,  to 
us  hardly  imaginable,  was,  however,  actually  the  con- 
dition of  things  reflected  in  parts  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews.     Therein  the  bond  under  which  man  suffers 


132  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

is  clearly  to  him  who  hath  the  Power  of  Death,  the 
Devil  :  Jesus  ransomed  man  from  the  Devil. 

The  anonymous  tractate  superscribed  solely  "To  the 
Hebrews,"  though  the  last  admitted  into  the  New  Tes- 
tament, is  probably  the  earliest  document  it  contains. 
It  has  no  doubt  been  tampered  with,  but  the  evidences 
of  the  early  date  of  its  conception  of  Christ  remain. 
Not  only  was  it  evidently  written  before  the  destruction 
of  the  temple  {anno  70),  but  before  there  was  any 
thought  of  a  mission  to  the  Gentiles,  who,  with  Paul 
their  apostle,  are  ignored.  Some  of  its  phrases  and 
illustrations  are  found  in  epistles  of  Paul,  but,  as  Dr. 
Davidson  pointed  out  in  his  Introduction  to  the  Nezv 
Testament,  the  general  doctrine  of  this  treatise  is  far 
from  Pauline,  and  it  is  difficult  to  find  any  reason  for 
supposing  that  the  few  borrowings  were  not  by  Paul, 
other  than  a  preference  for  Paul,  and  disinclination  to 
admit  that  there  is  any  anonymous  work  in  the  New 
Testament.  The  treatise  is  without  Paul's  egotism,  or 
his  fatalism,  and  its  conception  of  the  new  movement 
seems  decidedly  more  primitive  than  that  in  the 
recognised  Pauline  epistles.  The  sagacious  Eusebius, 
"father  of  church  history,"  connects  the  Epistle  "To 
the  Hebrews"  with  the  "Wisdom  of  Solomon,"  and  it 
seems  clear  that  we  have  here  the  bridge  between  the 
last  abutment  of  philosophic  or  "broad"  Jahvism,  and 
its  "new  departure"  as  Christism. 

It  is  not  of  especial  importance  to  the  present  in- 
quiry to  determine  that  Paul  might  not  at  some  youth- 
ful period  have  written  this  work,  though  I  cannot  see 
how  any  critical  reader  can  so  imagine ;  but  it  will  bear 
indirectly  on  that  point  if  we  read  successively  the  fol- 
lowing corresponding  passages : 


EPISTLE    TO    THE  HEBREWS.  1 33 

Wisdom  of  Solomon. — "For  Wisdom,  which  is  the  worker 
of  all  things,  taught  me  .  .  .  she  is  the  breath  of  the 
power  of  God,  and  a  pure  influence  flowing  from  the  glory  of 
the  Almighty ;  therefore  can  no  unclean  thing  fall  into  her. 
For  she  is  the  brightness  of  the  everlasting  light,  the  unspotted 
mirror  of  the  power  of  God,  and  the  image  of  his  goodness. 
And  alone  she  can  do  all  things ;  herself  unchanged,  she  maketh 
all  things  new:  and  in  all  ages  entering  into  holy  souls,  she 
maketh  them  friends  of  God  and  prophets." — (vii.  25-27.) 
"And  Wisdom  was  with  thee :  which  knoweth  thy  works,  and 
was  present  when  thou  madest  the  world."     (ix.  9.) 

Epistle  to  the  Hebrews. — "God,  having  in  time  past  spoken 
to  the  fathers  by  many  fragments  and  divers  ways  in  the 
prophets,  at  the  end  of  these  days  spake  unto  us  in  Son  whom 
he  constituted  heir  of  all  things,  by  whom  also  he  fashioned  the 
ages  ;  who,  being  the  brightness  of  his  light  and  the  image  of  his 
substance,  and  guiding  all  things  by  the  word  of  his  authority, 
having  made  purification  of  sins,  sat  on  the  right  of  majesty  in 
high  places."     (i.  1-3.) 

Epistle  to  the  Colossians. — "Who  (the  Father)  delivered  us 
out  of  the  power  of  darkness,  and  translated  us  into  the  king- 
dom of  his  son  of  love,  in  whom  we  have  our  redemption,  the 
forgiveness  of  our  sins :  who  is  the  image  of  the  invisible  God, 
the  first-born  of  all  creation;  for  in  him  were  all  things  cre- 
ated, in  the  heavens  and  above  the  earth,  things  visible  and 
things  invisible,  whether  thrones  or  dominions  or  principalities 
or  powers ;  all  things  have  been  created  through  him  and  unto 
him ;  and  he  is  before  all  things,  and  in  him  all  things  hold 
together."     (i.  13-17-) 

Fourth  Gospel. — "In  the  beginning  was  the  Word,  and  the 
Word  was  with  God,  and  the  Word  was  God.  The  same  was  in 
the  beginning  with  God.  All  things  were  made  through  him, 
and  without  him  was  not  anything  made.  That  which  hath 
been  made  was  life  in  him,  and  the  life  was  the  light  of  men. 
And  the  Word  became  flesh  and  dwelt  among  us,  and  we  beheld 
his  glory — glory  as  of  an  only  begotten  of  a  Father  full  of 
grace  and  truth."     (i.  1-15.) 

Tt  appears  to  me  that  the  evolution  is  represented  in 
the  order  given.     Paul's  phrase,  "first-born  of  all  crea- 


134  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

tion,"  is  an  amplification  of  the  word  "first-born"  used 
in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  but  there  used  in  another 
connection, — and  not  solely,  as  we  shall  see,  relating  to 
Christ.  Paul's  phrase  corresponds  with  "the  only- 
begotten,"  etc.,  of  John,  and  with  the  "son  constituted 
heir"  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  though  the  latter 
is  a  different  Christological  conception.  When  this 
writer's  doctrinal  statement  is  finished,  and  after  his 
argument  is  begun,  he  says  (i.  6),  "But  when  of  old 
bringing  the  first-born  into  the  inhabited  earth,  he  saith, 
And  pay  homage  to  him  all  angels  of  God."  The 
word  "first-born"  here  is  probably  the  seed  from  which 
Paul  develops  his  full  flower  of  doctrine,  given  above. 
Paul's  conception  of  a  creative  Christ  seems  later  than 
the  "guiding"  Christ  (Heb.  i.  3), which  recalls  the  func- 
tion of  Wisdom  as  "director"  at  the  creation  (Prov.  viii. 
30)  ;  and  the  idea  in  this  epistle  to  the  Hebrews  of  a 
previous  and  historical  Christophany,  while  harmoni- 
ous with  that  of  the  "Wisdom  of  Solomon"  (vii.  27), — 
that  she  (Wisdom)  "in  all  ages  enters  into  holy  souls," 
— is  so  primitive,  unique,  and  so  foreign  to  Paul,  that 
the  writer  may  have  been  one  of  those  accused  by  him 
of  preaching  "another  Jesus"  (2  Cor.  ii.  4).* 

*  Since  this  work  was  sent  to  the  press  the  world  has  been  enriched  by 
Dr.  McGiffert's  "History  of  Christianity  in  the  Apostolic  Age."  He  pro- 
nounces the  unknown  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  "without  doubt 
the  finest  and  most  cultured  literary  genius  of  the  primitive  church,"  but 
believes  the  Epistle  to  be  somewhat  later  than  those  of  Paul.  He  thinks  its 
detailed  description  of  proceedings  in  the  temple  might  have  been  written 
after  its  destruction,  as  Clement's  account  was,  and  remarks  that  the  writer 
always  calls  it  the  "tabernacle."  This  peculiarity  I  attribute  to  the  empha- 
sis in  the  "Wisdom  of  Solomon"  on  the  temple  being  "a  resemblance  of  the 
holy  tabernacle  which  thou  hast  prepared  from  the  beginning"  (ix.  8).  It 
seems  unlikely  that  the  Epistle  could  have  said  "the  priests  go  in  con- 
tinually" etc. ,  had  the  temple  not  existed.  Dr.  McGiffert  finds  in  some 
expressions  indications  that  there  were  Gentiles  among  those  to  whom  the 
Epistle  was  addressed,  but  even  admitting  this  it  is  natural  to  suppose  that 
there  must  have  been  some  fellowship  of  this  kind  among  educated  people 
before  Paul's  propaganda.  The  passages  referred  to  by  Dr.  McGiffert,  if 
they  imply  what  he  supposes,  render  it  all  the  more  improbable  that  if  Paul 
and  his  mission  to  the  Gentiles  preceded  this  Epistle,  there  should  be  no 
allusion  to  them  in  it. 


EPISTLE    TO    THE  HEBREWS.  1 35 

Although  this  Epistle  contains  the  principle  ascribed 
to  Jesus,  "charity  and  not  sacrifice"  (xiii.  9)  and  sub- 
stitutes for  beasts  the  "sacrifice  of  praise,  the  fruit  of 
lips  harmonious  with  his  good  name"  (verse  15),  the 
letter  that  killeth  brought  forth  from  the  same  chapter 
the  fatal  doctrine  that  the  body  of  Jesus  was  a  sacrifice 
to  be  eaten.  And  although  this  emphasizes  the  com- 
pleteness of  his  humanity  to  an  extent  inconsistent  with 
his  deity,  it  is  on  the  letter  of  this  Epistle  that  the 
deification  of  Christ  is  founded. 

V.  7-9.  "Who  in  the  days  of  his  flesh,  having  ofifered  up 
entreaties  with  vehement  crying  and  tears  to  him  able  to  save 
him  out  of  death,  and  although  inclined  to  because  of  his  piety, 
yet,  albeit  a  son,  learned  obedience  by  the  things  he  sufifered ; 
and  having  been  made  perfect,  became  unto  all  that  follow  him 
the  author  of  eternal  salvation."* 

He  is  represented  as  "made  perfect  through  suffer- 
ings," as  "tempted  in  all  points  like  (  Pothers)  without 
sin,"  and  as  having  without  assistance  of  temple  or 
sacrifices,  "obtained  eternal  redemption"  (ix.  12). 
Thus  he  also  needed  redemption. 

The  new  covenant  of  which  Jesus  was  the  founder 
is  described  in  the  words  of  Jeremiah  (xxxi.)  : 

*  Thus  spake  Angra  Mainyu,  the  guileful,  the  evil-doer,  the  deadly, 
"Fiend  rush  down  upon  him,  destroy  the  holy  Zoroaster  !"  The  fiend  came 
rushinp  alonqr,  the  demon  Buiti,  the  imseen  death,  the  liell-born.  Zoroaster 
chanted  loudly  the  Ahuna-Vairya:  "Tlie  will  of  the  Lord  is  the  law  of  holi- 
ness; the  riches  of  Volm-niano  (heavenly  wisdom)  shall  be  given  to  him  who 
works  in  this  world  for  God  (Mazda),  and  wields  according-  to  the  all-know- 
ing (.-Miiira)  the  power  he  pave  him  to  relieve  the  poor.  Profess  (O  Fiend) 
the  law  of  God  I"'  The  hend  dismayed  rushed  away,  and  said  to  Angra 
Mainyu  "O  baneful  Angra  Mainyu,  I  see  no  way  to  kill  him,  so  gre:!t  is  the 
glory  of  the  holy  Zoroaster."  Zoroaster  saw  all  this  from  within  his  soul; 
"The  evil-doing  devils  and  demons  take  counsel  together  for  mv  death." 
Up  started  Zoroaster,  forward  went  Zoroaster,  unshaken  by  the  evil  spirit. 
"(J  evil-doer,  Angra  Mainyu.  I  will  smite  the  creation  of  the  Evil  One 
(Daeva)  fill  the  fiend-smiter  .'^ao'^hvant  (Saviour)  cnme  up  to  life  out  of  the 
lake  Kasava.  from  thereeion  of  the  dawn."— Vendidad,  Farg.  xix,  1-3,  {Sa- 
cred Books  of  the  East.  Vol.  iv.  pp.  204-6.) 

Tlie  Ahuna-Vairya,  recited  l)v  Zoroaster,  was  the  prayer  by  which 
Ormazd  in  his  first  conflict  with  Ahreinan  drove  him  back  to  hell. 


136  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

I  will  put  my  laws  into  their  mind, 

And  on  their  heart  will  I  write  them 

And  I  will  be  to  them  a  God, 

And  they  shall  be  to  me  a  people : 

And  they  shall  not  teach  every  man  his  fellow-citizen, 

And  every  man  his  brother,  saying,  Know  the  Lord : 

For  all  shall  know  me. 

From  the  least  unto  the  greatest. 

In  quoting  this  the  writer  to  the  Hebrews  adds : 
"In  that  he  saith,  'A  new  (covenant)  he  hath  made 
the  first  old.  But  that  which  is  becoming  old  and 
waxeth  aged  is  near  unto  vanishing  entirely.'  "  Here 
is  a  primitive  Quakerism,  but  more  conservative;  not 
like  George  Fox  at  once  sweeping  away  priesthood 
sacraments  and  ecclesiastical  laws  before  the  Inner 
Light,  but  pointing  to  their  near  vanishing. 

The  writer  of  this  Epistle  is  a  philosophical  con- 
servative ;  he  shudders  at  the  idea  of  a  swift  and  com- 
plete overthrow  of  the  traditional  system,  and  even  bor- 
rows its  old  thunders  against  levitical  sin  to  menace 
offences  against  the  new  moral  God.  "Our  God 
[also]  is  a  consuming  fire."  It  is  evident  by  his  very 
warnings  that  a  great  anti-sacerdotal  and  anti-levitical 
revolution  had  taken  place,  and  that  the  free  spirit  was 
burgeoning  out  in  excesses.  But  such  is  his  culture 
that  one  may  suspect  his  thunders  of  being  theatrical, 
and  that  he  thinks  some  superstition  necessary  for  the 
masses. 

The  fatal  and  subtle  character  of  the  detective  Holy 
Spirit  is  imported  into  this  Epistle  from  the  "Wisdom 
of  Solomon"  (i.  6),  though  not  so  distinctly  personified. 
The  sin  afterwards  called  "unpardonable"  is  here 
a  sin  against  Christ  for  which  repentance,  not  pardon, 
is  impossible.     We  may  perhaps  find  in  some  of  the 


EPISTLE    TO    THE  HEBREWS.  137 

expressions  germs  of  the  legend  of  Judas.  "As  touch- 
ing those  who  were  once  enHghtened,  and  tasted  the 
heavenly  gift,  and  were  made  partakers  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  and  tasted  the  good  word  of  God,  and  the  powers 
of  the  age  that  is  come,  and  fell  away,  it  is  impossible 
to  renew  them  again  to  repentance,  seeing  they  indi- 
vidually impale  the  Son  of  God  afresh  and  put  him  to 
open  shame"  (vi.  5,  6).  The  believers  are  "not  of 
them  that  shrink  back  into  perdition"  (x.  39)  ;  and 
they  are  warned  to  look  carefully  "whether  there  be  any 
man  that  falleth  back  from  the  grace  of  God.  .  .  . 
like  Esau,  who  for  one  mess  of  meat  sold  his  own 
birthright"  (xii.  15,  16).  The  words  "tasted,"  "per- 
dition," "sold,"  might  start  a  legend  of  the  betrayal, 
first  alluded  to  by  Paul  (if  i  Cor.  xi.  23  be  genuine, 
which  is  doubtful), though  had  the  legend  of  Judas  then 
existed  this  writer  would  naturally  have  alluded  to  him 
along  with  Esau. 

This  Epistle  is  the  nursery  of  the  titles  of  Christ ; 
he  is  Apostle,  Son  of  God,  Son  of  Man,  Great 
Shepherd,  Captain  of  Salvation,  Mediator,  Great  High 
Priest;  and  here  alone  is  found  the  now  familiar  en- 
dearing phrase  "Our  Lord."  These  titles  represent 
the  functions  of  different  beings  in  the  Avesta.  The 
conception  of  the  work  of  Jesus  on  earth  is  largely 
Zoroastrian.  The  Majesty  on  high  has  a  colony  and 
a  people  on  earth,  which  otherwise  is  under  the  su- 
premacy of  the  Evil  One.  As  we  have  seen  the 
Avestan  definitions  of  Ahuramazda  and  Angra  Mainyu, 
"the  Living  and  the  Not  Living,"  are  reflected  in 
the  phrases  of  this  Epistle, — the  "Power  of  Imperish- 
able Life"  (vii.  16)  and  the  "Power  of  Death"  (ii.  14). 
Ahuramazda,  when  his  "habitable  earth"  was  prepared, 


138  SOLOMONIC   LITERATURE. 

brought  into  it  his  "first-born,"  Yima,  and  wished  him 
to  propagate  the  divine  law  which  should  destroy  the 
power  of  Angra  Mainyu  on  earth  and  confine  him  in 
the  underworld.  Yima  replied,  "I  was  not  born, 
I  was  not  taught,  to  be  the  preacher  and  the  bearer 
of  thy  law."  He  engaged,  however,  to  enlarge  and 
nouris4i  the  garden  of  God  on  earth,  of  which  he  was 
king,  and  entitled  "the  good  shepherd."  He  obtained 
from  the  Holy  Spirit,  iA-uahita,  the  powers  thus  enumer- 
ated in  Aban  Yast  26 :  "He  begged  of  her  a  boon,  say- 
ing, 'Grant  me  'this,  O  good,  most  beneficent  Ardvi 
Sura  Anahita,  that  I  may  become  the  sovereign  lord 
of  all  countries,  of  the  dssvas  [devils]  and  men,  of  the 
Yatus  [sorcerers]  and  Pairkas  [seducing  nymphs],  of 
the  oppressors  [who  afflict]  the  blind  and  the  deaf; 
and  that  I  may  take  from  the  dsevas  [devils]  both 
riches  and  welfare,  both  fatness  and  flocks,  both 
weal  and  glory"  [hvareno,  "the  glory  from  above 
which  makes  the  king  an  earthly  god"].*  This  "first- 
born" reigned  a  thousand  years,  but  then,  having 
ascribed  his  "glory"  to  the  demons  from  whom  he 
obtained  wealth  and  material  benefits,  his  "glory"  was 
lost,  and  secured  by  the  Devil,  who  reigned  in  his  place 
a  thousand  years,  blighting  the  world,  when  Zoroaster 
was  born  to  undertake  the  establishment  of  the  divine 
Law  on  earth.  Yima  was  ultimately  developed  into 
the  Jamshid  of  Persian  mythology,  whose  power  over 
demons,  fabulous  wealth,  and  ultimate  fall  (through 
declaring  himself  a  god,  according  to  Firdusi)  invested 
the  legend  of  Solomon. 

From  the  legend   of   Solomon   and  the   Solomonic 
Psalms  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  brings  its  exaltation 

*  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  \o\.  xxiii.  p.  59. 


EPISTLE    TO    THE  HEBREWS.  1 39 

of  Christ.  From  Ps.  Ixxxix.  26-7,  as  reproduced  in 
2  Sam.  vii.  14,  is  quoted  (i.  5)  the  divine  promise, 
"I  will  be  to  him  (Solomon)  a  Father  and  he  shall  be 
my  Son,"  along  with  the  manifesto  at  Solomon's 
enthronement  (Ps.  ii.  7),  "Thou  art  my  Son;  this  day 
have  I  begotten  thee."  Solomon  is  the  "first-born" 
alluded  to  in  Heb.  i.  6:  "When  of  old  bringing  the 
first-born  into  the  inhabited  earth  (  i>iy.iwii.hi^v  )  he  saith. 
And  pay  homage  to  him  all  angels  of  God  ? 

And  here  we  have  an  interesting  example  of  evolu- 
tion in  the  Solomon  legend.  The  term  "first-born,"  as 
indicating  the  relation  of  a  human  being  to  the  deity, 
occurs  but  once  in  the  Old  Testament,  namely,  in 
Psalm  Ixxxix.  2^.  It  occurs  in  a  strange  passage  that 
must  be  quoted : 

19.  Then  thou  spakest  in  vision  to  thy  holy  ones, 
And  saidst,  I  have  laid  help  upon  a  youth; 

I  have  raised  one  elected  out  of  the  people. 

20.  I  have  discovered  David,  my  servant : 
With  my  holy  oil  have  I  anointed  him, 

21.  By  whom  my  hand  shall  be  established, 
Whom  also  mine  arm  shall  strengthen. 

22.  The  enemy  shall  not  do  him  violence. 
Nor  the  son  of  evil  afflict  him. 

22,.     I  will  beat  down  his  adversaries  before  him 
And  smite  them  that  hate  him. 

24.  But  my  faithfulness  and  my  mercy  end  not  with  him, 
And  in  my  name  shall  his  horn  be  exalted. 

25.  I  will  extend  his  hand  on  the  sea  also, 
And  his  right  hand  on  the  rivers : 

26.  He  shall  address  me,  "Thou,  my  father. 
My  God,  and  the  rock  of  my  support" ; 

27.  In  answer  I  constitute  him  first-born. 
Elyon  of  the  kings  of  the  earth. 

Althciugh  in  all  of  these  verses  the  Davidic  royalty 
is  exalted,  the  reference  to  David's  own  reign  passes  at 


140  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

verse  24  into  a  celebration  of  Solomon.  Here,  as  in 
Psalm  cxxxii.  17,  Solomon  is  the  "horn"  of  David: 
he  was  distinctively  the  power  on  sea  and  river, 
phrases  inapplicable  to  David,  and  there  is  a  con- 
trast between  the  anointed  "servant"  (verse  20) 
and  the  "first-born"  (verse  27).  The  next  title, 
"Elyon"  (Most  High),  comes  very  near  to  that 
of  the  deity  (El  Elyon)  of  the  mysterious  priest- 
king  of  Salem,  Melchizedek,  whose  mythical  character 
and  identity  with  the  legendary  Solomon  will  be  here- 
after considered. 

Here  we  have  no  doubt  the  germs  of  the  narrative  in 
2  Sam.  vii.  of  the  formal  adoption  of  Solomon  as  Jah- 
veh's  son,  with  the  addition  of  a  metaphysical  connota- 
tion of  the  sonship  not  found  in  the  Psalm.  In  the 
Psalm  the  fatherhood  is  that  of  support,  the  position  of 
"first-born"  is  that  of  chieftainship  among  kings ;  and 
it  is  further  said  (31,  32)  that  if  any  of  the  sons  of  the 
Davidic  line  profane  the  divine  statutes,  "Then  will  I 
visit  their  transgression  with  the  rod,  and  their  iniquity 
with  stripes."  But  in  2  Sam.  vii.  14,  Jahveh  applies 
this  warning  to  Solomon  alone,  and  with  a  remarkable 
modification :  "I  will  be  his  father  and  he  shall  be  my 
son :  if  he  commit  iniquity  I  will  chasten  him  with  the 
rod  of  men,  and  with  the  stripes  of  the  sons  of  men; 
but  my  mercy  shall  not  depart  from  him."  That  is, 
though  a  son  of  God  he  may  be  chastened  like  the  sons 
of  men, — an  intimation  of  a  difference  between  Solo- 
mon and  ordinary  human  nature  not  intended  in  the 
words  of  the  Psalm. 

The  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  finding  in  this  Psalm  an 
introduction  of  "first-born"  into  the  world,  for  there  is 
no  article  preceding  the  word,  follows  it  so  closely  as  to 


EPISTLE    TO    THE   HEBREWS.  141 

omit  any  article  before  "son"  (i.  2).  He  finds  this  in 
an  address  of  the  deity  to  his  angels  ("holy  ones"  or 
saints),  and  understands  verse  27  of  the  Psalm  to  mean 
that  they,  the  angels,  are  to  worship  the  "first-born" 
as  the  Elyon,  or  Most  High  on  earth.  From  2  Sam.  vii. 
the  Epistle  gets  sufficient  authority  for  ascribing  an 
eternal  personality  to  the  sonship,  anciently  represented 
by  Solomon,  and  we  may  thus  see  that  the  gesture  of 
Hebrew  religion  towards  a  doctrine  of  incarnation 
was  much  earlier  than  is  generally  supposed.  And 
this,  too,  is  the  Hebrew  contribution  to  a  Psalm  which, 
in  the  nine  verses  above  quoted,  imports  ideas  foreign 
to  Judaism.  The  reciprocal  help  of  the  deity  and  the 
king  (19-21)  is  Avestan,  and  inconsistent  with  mono- 
theism. Elyon  is  the  name  of  an  ancient  Phoenician 
god,  slain  by  his  son  El,  no  doubt  the  "first-born  of 
death"  in  Job  xviii.  13,  and  the  violent  "son  of  evil," 
in  verse  22  of  our  Psalm.  The  exaltation  of  both  David 
and  Solomon  in  the  Psalm  is  primarily  in  reference  to 
service  and  deeds,  not  majesty,  essence,  or  title;  of 
these  Avestan  religion  made  little,  but  Hebraism  madj 
much,  and  the  deification  of  Solomon,  though  warranted 
by  other  Psalms,  is  added  to  this  eighty-ninth  by  Samuel 
and  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews. 

In  Ecclesiasticus  it  is  written  :  "In  the  division  of  the 
nations  of  the  whole  earth  he  set  a  ruler  over  every  peo- 
ple ;  but  Israel  is  the  Lord's  portion :  whom,  being  his 
first-born,  he  nourisheth  with  discipline,  and  giving 
him  the  light  of  his  love  doth  not  forsake  him.  .  .  . 
For  all  things  cannot  be  in  men,  because  the  son  of  man 
is  not  immortal.  What  is  brighter  than  the  sun  ?  Yel 
the  light  thereof  faileth ;  and  flesh  and  blood  will 
imagine  evil"  (xvii.).  Now  in  the  Zoroastrian  theology 


142  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

there  could  be  no  direct  contact  of  God  with  matter: 
the  devil's  empire  could  be  invaded  and  death  con- 
quered only  by  a  perfectly  "blameless"  man.  (Cf. 
"Wisdom  of  Solomon,"  xviii.  21,  with  the  "sinless"  of 
Heb.  iv.  15,  the  "guileless"  of  vii.  26,  and  "without 
blemish,"  ix.  14).  The  spotless  one  can  use  no  carnal 
weapon.  In  the  Zoroastrian  theology  the  divine  po- 
tency is  that  of  the  Word,  and  formulas  exist  to  be 
wielded  against  every  variety  of  demon.  So  in  this 
Epistle  the  supremacy  of  the  Son  is  by  "the  word  of  his 
power"  (i.  3),  and  "the  Word  of  God  is  sharper  than 
any  two-edged  sword"  (iv.  12). 

The  enterprise  of  the  Son  of  God  was  to  fulfil  these 
conditions.  He  must  become  a  complete  man,  share  all 
the  infirmities  of  man,  all  his  liabilities  to  temptation, 
receive  no  assistance  from  his  Father,  no  angelic  help, — 
placed  lower  than  the  angels, — and  confront  the  powers 
of  Death  and  Hell  without  any  material  weapon.  If 
he  succeeded  in  remaining  sinless,  faithful  to  the  divine 
law,  even  unto  death,  even  while  in  hell,  unshaken  by 
threats,  sufferings,  or  seductions,  it  must  be  a  purely 
human  achievement.  There  was  no  miracle  ;  even  the 
suspicion  of  using  supernatural  power  would  have 
tainted  the  whole  work  of  Jesus  as  conceived  in  this 
Epistle. 

This  undertaking  was  not  simply  for  the  sake  of  man- 
kind. All  things  are  not  yet  subjected  to  the  divine 
sway  (Heb.  ii.  8).  Heaven  itself  was  shaken,  when 
the  old  covenant  failed,  and  trembled  for  the  result  of 
the  tremendous  conflict  of  the  Son  of  Man  on  earth 
with  its  Prince  and  his  hosts  (Heb.  xii.  25-29).  This 
was  "the  joy  in  front  of  him"  (xii.  2),  as  well  as  the 
rescue  of  men. 


EPISTLE   TO    THE  HEBREWS.  143 

Thus  was  the  man  left  entirely  to  the  devil,  not  even 
his  life  being  reserved,  as  in  the  case  of  Job.  He  loudly 
cries  for  help,  even  with  tears,  at  the  sight  of  Death; 
he  is  heard,  pitied,  but  no  help  comes.  He  must  trust 
to  his  human  merits,  and  not  miracles,  for  his  Sonship 
is  of  no  value  in  this  conflict.  By  his  obedience  learned 
in  his  sufferings,  l)y  his  sinlcssness  under  all  trials  and 
temptations,  he  fulfilled  the  conditions  of  deathlessness. 
By  his  own  heart's  blood,  not  by  offerings  of  bloody 
sacrifices,  not  by  supernatural  power,  he  reached  the 
place  of  holiness,  "having  obtained  eternal  redemption." 
From  first  to  last  there  was  no  divine  aid.  His  un- 
answered loud  cries  (Pleb.  v.  7)  may  be  connected  with 
the  legend  of  his  expiring  cry,  "My  God,  my  God,  why 
hast  Thou  forsaken  me?" 

Much  of  the  thought  here  is  similar  to  the  "Wisdom 
of  Solomon"  (ii.  22-4,  iii.  1-9),  where  however  the  ideas 
are  conflicting.  It  is  said,  "God  created  man  to  be 
immortal,  and  made  him  to  be  an  image  of  his  own 
eternity:  nevertheless,  through  the  devil's  envy  came 
death  into  the  world,  and  they  that  hold  of  his  side  do 
find  it."  But  then  Jahvism  puts  in  with  the  declaration 
that  the  seeming  destruction  of  the  righteous  is 
God's  chastisement  and  probation  of  them.  The  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews  does  not  regard  the  sufferings  and  death 
of  Jesus  as  God's  work  at  all,  but  all  from  the  devil. 
Though  God  spoke  by  him  there  is  no  suggestion  that 
he  sent  Jesus,  or  that  his  coming  was  not  voluntary. 

With  this  reservation,  and  a  large  one  it  is,  that  Jesus 
was  not  delivered  up  to  Satan  by  God,  but  left  to  con- 
front his  torments  in  an  effort  to  subdue  him.  "bring 
him  to  nought,"  the  central  idea  of  the  Epistle  is  a 
doctrinal  transfiguration  of  Job,  who  being  delivered  up 


144  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

to  Satan,  triumphs  over  the  tempter  and  tormentor, 
and  through  all  preserves  his  sinlessness  and  loyalty  to 
God.  The  result  being  that  those  who  had  denied  Job's 
merits,  his  sinlessness,  had  to  secure  Job's  interces- 
sion in  order  to  escape  the  penalty  of  having  ascribed 
his  sufferings  to  God  (Job  xlii.  8).*  This  relationship 
of  ideas  is  all  the  more  interesting  because  apparently 
unconscious  in  the  writer  of  the  Epistle,  and  thus 
revealing  the  extent  to  which  Oriental  religion  had  re- 
moulded Judaism  among  the  educated  Jews  of  his  time. 
Monotheism  is  strictly  inconsistent  with  the  supremacy 
of  "merits"  which  is  the  very  soul  of  Oriental  religion. 
The  sacred  books  of  India  contain  records  of  saints 
or  Rishis  who  by  extraordinary  austerities,  sacrifices, 
and  virtues  so  piled  up  their  "merits"  that  the  gods 
were  frightened,  as  they  were  at  the  tower  of  Babel; 
and  sometimes  the  gods  tempted  these  powerful  saints 
to  commit  some  sin  that  would  reduce  their  "merits." 
The  Solomonic  "Proverbs"  are  pervaded  by  the  Orien- 
tal doctrine  of  "merits" :  a  man  is  proved  by  test  of  his 
merits,  as  gold  passing  through  the  furnace  (xxvii. 
2i)  ;  the  perfect  inherit  good  (xxviii.  lo)  ;  and  per- 
haps that  sublime  pedlar  of  transcendent  gems  im- 
ported along  with  the  gold  of  Ophir  some  version  of  the 
Puranic  legend  of  Harischandra,  "the  Hindu  Job." 
All  the  Jahvist  adulterations  of  the  biblical  version  do 
not  conceal  the  fact  that  when  Jahveh,  by  delivering 
the  meritorious  man  up  to  Satan,  delivered  himself  also 
into  the  hands  of  Satan,  he  (Jahveh)  was  compelled 
to  surrender  before  the  merits  on  which  the  man  had 
planted  himself.  Jahveh  reclaimed  his  sovereignty, 
but  agreed  that  Job,  who  had  said  "God  hath  wronged 

*  It  is  even  doubtful  whether  they  were  not  ordered  to  offer  burnt  offer- 
ings to  Job  as  a  deity. 


EPISTLE   TO   THE  HEBREWS.  145 

me,"  had  spoken  of  him  "the  thing  that  is  right''  (xhi. 
8).  In  the  same  way  the  storm-god  Indra  (the  Hindu 
Jahveh)  accompanied  by  all  the  gods,  headed  by 
Dharma  (Justice),  appears  to  Harischandra  after  his 
trials,  and  tells  him  that  he,  his  wife  and  son,  had,  by 
their  merits,  "conquered  heaven"  (Markandeya  Pur- 
ana).  The  completion  of  these  merits  was  when  Haris- 
chandra resolved  with  his  wife  to  die  on  the  funeral 
pyre  of  their  son,  who,  as  a  result  of  their  torments, 
had  died  by  a  serpent's  bite.  It  was  then  that  the  god 
Indra  appeared  to  restore  the  son,  and  admit  that  the 
just  and  faithful  king,  his  wife  and  son,  had  "con- 
quered heaven."  We  are  thus  carried  to  the  Solomonic 
affirmations  that  "when  the  whirlwind  passeth  the  just 
man  is  on  an  everlasting  foundation"  (Prov.  x.  25), 
that  "justice  delivereth  from  death"  (x.  2),  that  "the 
just  man  finds  a  refuge  in  death"  (xiv.  32)  ;  and  we  are 
carried  forward  to  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  where, 
after  the  last  ordeal,  death,  the  son  of  the  heavenly 
king  is  restored  to  life,  and  Satan,  who  had  over  him 
the  power  of  death,  "brought  to  nought"  (ii.  14).  But 
further,  in  the  Puranic  legend,  which  from  time 
immemorial  has  been  a  passion-play  in  India,  Haris- 
chandra, when  told  that  he,  his  wife  and  son,  had  "con- 
quered heaven,"  refused  to  ascend  to  heaven  without 
his  "faithful  subjects."  "This  request  was  granted  by 
Indra,  and  after  Viswamitra  had  inaugurated  Rohit- 
aswa,  the  king's  son,  to  be  his  successor,  Harischandra, 
his  friends  and  followers,  all  ascended  to  heaven." 
Thus,  in  our  Epistle,  the  son,  having  "learned  obedience 
by  the  things  which  he  suffered,  and  having  been  made 
perfect,  became  unto  all  them  that  obeyed  him  the 
author  of  eternal  salvation."    "For  in  that  he  hath  him- 


146  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

self  suffered  being  tempted,  he  is  able  to  succor  them 
that  are  tempted."  The  subjects  of  King  Harischandra 
who  remained  faithful  to  him  after  he  was  reduced  to 
beggary,  ascended  with  him.  Faith  is  declared  in  our 
Epistle  to  be  "the  testing  of  things  not  seen"  (xi.  i), 
and  faithfulness  is  to  "run  with  patience  the  course 
that  is  set  before  us,  looking  unto  Jesus,  the  captain  and 
perfector  of  faithfulness,  who  for  the  joy  set  before 
him  endured  the  stake  (  araupuv),  despising  shame,  and 
hath  sat  down  at  the  right  hand  of  the  throne  of  God" 
(xi.  I,  xii.  I,  2). 

And  there  is  also,  I  believe,  in  the  scheme  of  redemp- 
tion set  forth  in  this  Epistle,  an  influence  from  the  story 
of  King  Usinara  in  the  Mahabharata,  of  which  there 
were  various  versions  which  must  have  been  familiar  to 
the  Buddhists  in  Alexandria.  A  dove  pursued  by  a  fal- 
con takes  refuge  in  the  bosom  of  Usinara ;  the  falcon 
demands  its  surrender.  The  King  quotes  the  law  of 
Manu  that  it  is  a  great  sin  to  abandon  any  being  that 
has  taken  asylum  with  one.  The  falcon  urges  that  it  is 
the  law  of  nature  that  falcons  shall  feed  on  doves,  and 
that  unless  this  dove  is  surrendered  its  little  falcons 
must  starve.  The  King  offers  other  food,  but  the  only 
substitute  that  is  adapted  to  the  falcon's  nature  is  a 
quantity  of  Usinara's  own  flesh  equal  to  the  weight  of 
the  dove.  To  this  the  King  agrees.  Balances  are 
produced,  and  the  dove  placed  in  one  scale,  in  the  other 
a  piece  of  the  King's  flesh,  which  seems  large  enough, 
but  is  insufficient.  Though  the  King  cuts  off  piece  by 
piece  all  of  his  flesh,  the  dove  outweighs  it,  until  at 
length  Usinara  gets  into  the  scale  himself.  That  out- 
weighs the  dove,  which  is  really  Agni,  the  falcon  being 
Indra.  The  gods  who  had  assumed  these  forms  in  order 


EPISTLE    TO    THE  HEBREWS.  1 47 

to  test  Usinara's  fidelity  to  the  law  of  sanctuary,  resume 
their  shape,  and  the  King  ascends  transfigured  to  para- 
dise. In  one  version  a  King  (Givi)  sacrifices  his  son, 
Vrihad-Gasbha  in  obedience  to  sacred  requirements, 
the  story  resembling  that  of  Abraham  and  Isaac.  Al- 
ford  calls  attention  to  the  emphasis  on  the  word  "him- 
self" in  the  Epistle  of  the  Hebrews  ix.  14:  "How 
much  more  shall  the  blood  of  Christ,  who,  through  the 
eternal  Spirit  offered  himself,  without  blemish,  unto 
God,  cleanse  our  conscience  from  dead  works  to  serve 
the  living  God." 

Without  blemish !  That  was  the  great  point.  The 
champion  of  the  Good  confronts  the  champion  of  Evil, 
his  purpose  being  to  conquer  the  last  enemy,  Death,  by 
unarmed  human  virtue.  This  was  the  central  idea  in 
the  Passion,  a  drama  gone  to  pieces  in  the  Gospels. 
Therefore,  he  did  not  summon  legions  of  angels,  and 
said  to  Peter,  "Sheath  thy  sword."  Therefore,  the 
mere  lynching  of  Jesus,  for  such  it  was,  is  given  the 
formalities  of  judicial  procedure,  in  order  to  impress 
an  official  character  on  the  testimonies  to  his  innocence : 
Pilate,  Caiaphas,  Pilate's  wife,  Judas,  Herod,  all  bear 
witness  that  no  evil  is  in  him,  and  he  challenges  the 
High  Priest's  court,  "If  I  have  uttered  evil  bear  wit- 
ness of  the  evil."*  In  this  passion-drama  Jesus  Barab- 
bas  is  set  beside  Jesus  the  Christ, — officially  pro- 
claimed guilt  beside  officially  proclaimed  innocence, — 
and  Wrath  selects  guilt,  condemns  innocence.  But  it 
was  thus  the  first-born  of  Life  prevailed  over  the  first- 

*It  is.  I  think,  an  indication  of  the  nearness  of  the  "Gospel  according  to 
the  Hebrews"  to  the  Apostolic  Age  that  a  sort  of  caveat  is  there  recorded 
against  the  possible  implication  that  the  baptism  of  Jesus  was  for  remission 
of  sins.  "lie  said  to  them,  Wherein  have  I  sinned  that  I  should  go  and  be 
baptized  by  him?"  The  whole  passage  is  quoted  on  a  farther  page,  but  it 
may  be  stated  here  that  the  descending  dove  certifies  the  sinlesrness  of  Jesus 
before  his  baptism.  The  Synoptics  introduce  the  dove  after  the  baptism. 
Tlie  significance  of  the  scene  was  thus  lost. 


148  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

born  of  Death.  In  that  crisis  the  blameless  man 
swerving  not  from  his  rectitude,  established  the 
"assembly  of  the  first-born,"  who  can  dwell  with  the 
living  God  because  they  have  learned  from  their  Cap- 
tain how  to  get  rid  of  the  defilement  of  mortality. 
There  is  nothing  vicarious  in  his  service.  The  Captain 
represented  the  human  race  in  a  single  combat  with 
Satan,  and  he  discovered  for  all  the  vulnerable  point 
of  that  Adversary, — that  he  could  not  hold  in  sheol  a 
perfectly  sinless  human  being.  But  it  still  remained 
that  without  holiness  no  man  could  see  the  Lord.  An- 
other advantage  secured  by  Jesus  for  men  was  that 
after  his  victory  was  achieved  the  heroic  man,  on  resum- 
ing his  previous  position  as  Son  of  God,  was  able  to  add 
thereto  what  he  had  won  as  Son  of  Man, — the  office  of 
high  priest  or  intercessor,  who  could  take  good  care 
that  every  man  who  fulfilled  the  condition  of  holiness 
got  his  reward.  Satan  should  not  cheat.  Neverthe- 
less Jesus  had  been  his  own  saviour,  and  every  man 
must  be  his  owm  saviour. 

Pulpit  ignorance  has  wrested  from  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews  fragments  of  texts,  in  support  of  a  dogma  of 
atonement  which  only  a  fortunate  lack  of  logic  prevents 
from  amounting  to  a  doctrine  of  human  sacrifice.  A 
favorite  clause  is,  "Without  the  shedding  of  blood  there 
in  no  remission," — which  is  really  this  epistle's  stigma 
on  the  system  it  is  abolishing !  The  sacredness  of  the 
blood  of  Jesus  was  that  it  was  the  price  he  had  tO'  pay 
to  the  devil  in  order  to  preserve  his  sinlessness,  and  so 
rise  from  death,  and  demonstrate  to  others  that  they  also 
could  rise  by  sinlessness  to  eternal  life.  It  might  cost 
their  blood  also,  but  would  be  lost  if  they  "resisted 
unto  blood."     Jesus  thus  brought  life  and  incorrup- 


EPISTLE    TO    THE  HEBREWS.  149 

tion,  as  disting-uished  from  living-death  in  sheol,  to 
light.  And  the  devotion  to  Jesus  for  this  was  due  to 
the  belief  that  he  had  laid  aside  his  heavenly  glory  and 
become  a  complete  man,  and  had  thus  risked  his  all,  his 
greatness,  his  very  immortality,  to  make  for  both 
heaven  and  earth  the  tremendous  venture ;  the  slightest 
misstep,  the  least  sin,  or  wrath,  or  impatience,  and  he 
would  have  had  his  abode  in  sheol,  in  bonds  of  Satan, 
through  all  eternity. 

When  this  Epistle  was  written  the  believers  already 
found  immortality  in  such  faith ;  with  such  hope  and 
joy  before  them  they  were  able  to  despise  sensual  joys, 
to  conquer  temptations,  and  to  fulfill  those  duties  and 
conditions  of  personal  holiness  which  are  described  in 
this  Epistle, — "Peace  with  all  men,  and  holiness  with- 
out which  no  man  can  see  the  Lord."  The  ecstasy  did 
not  last  long,  but  it  was  a  marvellous  phenomenon 
while  it  lasted,  and  the  most  complete  reflection  of  it 
may  be  found  in  this  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  especially 
if  it  be  approached  by  its  prologue, — the  "Wisdom  of 
Solomon," — but  it  is  subtle,  and  can  only  be  compre- 
hended by  patient  and  comparative  studies. 

At  the  heart  of  this  earliest  and  swiftly  lost  Chris- 
tianity was  a  sublime  effort  to  humanize  God. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

SOLOMON   MELCHIZEDEK. 

It  is  possible  that  the  genealogies  of  Jesus  started 
from  no  other  basis  than  Hebrews  vii.  14 :  "It  is  dear 
beforehand  that  our  Lord  hath  arisen  out  of  Judah."* 
Yet  nothing  could  be  more  subversive  of  the  Epistle 
than  a  claim  of  any  hereditary  authority  or  advantage 
for  Jesus. 

The  author  of  the  Epistle,  if  he  ever  heard  the  phrase 
"Son  of  David,"  avoided  it,  for  David  is  here  in  the 
background,  and  in  a  quotation  from  one  of  his  Psalms 
his  name  is  passed  over,  with  the  vague  words,  "one 
hath  testified  somewhere,  saying,"  etc.  It  is  an  essen- 
tial part  of  the  writer's  argument  that  Christ  is  "with- 
out genealogy"  of  that  kind.  To  some  it  was  no  doubt 
grateful  to  be  told  that  Jesus  was  not  of  the  priestly 
tribe,  not  of  that  "apostolic  succession,"  so  to  say;  but 
it  was  more  important  to  convince  the  conservative  that 
their  sacred  history  sanctioned  faith  in  a  hieh  priest 
approved  as  such  not  by  carnal  descent,  but  by  his  sin- 
lessness  and  by  his  resurrection.  But  it  was  not  agree- 
able to  any  Jewish  party  to  suppose  that  the  new 
dominion  was  to  be  altogether  in  the  heavens,  or  de- 
tached  from  the   Solomonic   Golden   Age   for  whose 

*  It  is  doubtful  whether  this  can  be  regarded  as  historical.  The  "clear 
beforehand"  (7r/)f>f^5y/l()v)  renders  it  more  probable  that  it  is  a  reference  to 
Ps.  Ixxviii.  67,  68.  "  He  refused  the  tent  of  Joseph,  and  chose  not  the  tribe  of 
Ephraim,  but  chose  the  tribe  of  Judah,"  etc. 

150 


SOLOMON  MELCHIZEDEK.  151 

return  they  were  hoping.  The  writer  therefore  con- 
nects Jesus  with  a  "first-born"  forerunner,  namely,  with 
Melchizedek,  concerning  whom  he  ''has  many  things 
to  say,  and  hard  of  interpretation."  So  Christian  com- 
mentators have  to  this  day  found  what  he  does  say,  and 
Melchizedek  is  not  surrounded  by  any  dogmatic  fence 
that  can  turn  a  new  hypothesis  into  a  trespass. 
The  Epistle  applies  to  Jesus  lines  from  Psalm  ex. : 

Thou  art  a  priest  for  ever, 

After  the  order  of  Melchizedek. 

But  in  this  anonymous  Psalm  there  is  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  Melchizedek  is  not  a  proper  name  at  all.  It 
is  admittedly  a  combination  of  malki' -tzedek ,  "king  of 
justice,"  and  in  the  Jewish  Family  Bible  (Deusch)  the 
above  lines  are  translated,  "Thou  art  my  priest  for  ever, 
my  king  in  righteousness,  by  my  word."  The  Septua- 
gint,  regularly  followed  by  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews, 
has  Melchizedek  in  this  Psalm  ex.,  which  was  also  mes- 
sianized  by  the  LXX.  in  its  very  first  line,  "The  Eord 
said  unto  my  Lord,"  Kufiioq  being  the  word  for  Lord  in 
both  cases,  whereas  in  the  original  the  words  are 
different  ("Jahveh  declared  to  my  Adonai").  And  it 
is  notable  that  JMatthew  xxii.  whose  Hebraic  character 
is  so  marked,  and  Mark  xii.,  both  make  Jesus  follow 
the  Septuagint  in  quoting  these  words. 

In  both  of  these  Gospels  the  incident  is  evidently,  in 
Mark  clumsily,  interpolated,  and  it  would  appear  to 
have  belonged  to  some  legend  of  the  Infancy,  such  as 
that  of  the  Arabic  Gospel  of  the  Infancy,  where  it  oc- 
curs naturally : 

"And  when  he  was  twelve  years  old  they  took  him  to  Jeru- 
salem to  the  feast.  But  when  the  feast  was  over  they  indeed 
returned,  but  the  Lord  Jesus  remained  in  the  temple  among 


152  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

the  doctors  and  elders  and  learned  men  of  Jerusalem,  and  he 
asked  them  sundry  questions  about  the  sciences  and  they 
answered  him  in  turn.  Now  he  said  to  them,  Whose  son  is 
Messiah?  They  answered  him,  The  son  of  David.  Where- 
fore, then,  said  he,  Doth  he  in  spirit  call  him  Lord,  when  he 
saith  the  Lord  said  unto  my  Lord,  Sit  thou  on  my  right  hand, 
that  I  may  bring  down  thy  enemies  to  the  footprints  of  thy 
feet?" 

It  is  probable  that  this  anecdote  had  floated  down 
from  an  early  period  when  the  notion  of  a  royal  descent 
of  Jesus  had  not  arisen. 

Obviously  a  tremendous  question  arises  here  as  to 
how  a  story  should  be  found  in  Genesis  xiv.  about  Mel- 
chizedek,  which  as  a  proper  name  really  occurs  nowhere 
else  in  the  Hebrew  Bible,*  and  the  mystery  is  increased 
by  the  absence  of  any  allusion  to  such  a  personage  in 
Jesus  Ben  Sira's  enumeration  of  "famous  men"  (Ecclus. 
xliv.),  or  elsewhere.  It  almost  looks  as  if  Jesus  Ben 
Sira  had  not  read,  or  else  had  cancelled  as  spurious,  the 
strange  passage  in  Genesis — which  is  as  follows : 

"And  Melchizedek,  King  of  Salem,  brought  forth  bread  and 
wine;  and  he  was  priest  of  El-Elyon.  And  he  blessed  him  and 
said.  Blessed  be  Abram  of  El-Elyon,  purchaser  of  heaven  and 
earth ;  and  blessed  be  El-Elyon,  which  hath  delivered  thine  ene- 
mies into  thy  hand.    And  he  (Abram)  gave  him  a  tenth  of  all." 

Professor  Max  Miiller,  in  his  third  lecture  on  the 
"Science  of  Religion,"  gives  some  useful  information 
concerning  this  peculiar  name,  "El-Elyon,"  after  con- 
sulting his  contemporaries  at  Oxford  and  in  Germany : 

"One  of  the  oldest  names  of  the  deity  among  the  an- 
cestors of  the  Semitic  nations  was  El.  It  meant  Strong. 
It  occurs  in  the  Babylonian  inscriptions  as  Ilu,  God, 
and  in  the  very  name  of  Bab-il,  the  gate  or  temple  of 

*  The  King  of  Sodom  came  out  to  Abram  at  the  same  time,  but  no 
proper  name  is  assigned  him. 


SOLOMON  MELCIIIZEDEK.  1 53 

II.  .  .  .  The  same  El  was  worshipped  at  Byblus 
by  the  Phcenicians,  and  he  was  called  there  the  Son  of 
Heaven  and  Earth.  His  father  was  the  son  of  Eliun, 
the  most  high  God,  who  had  been  killed  by  wild  ani- 
mals. The  Son  of  Eliun,  who  succeeded  him,  was 
dethroned,  and  at  last  slain  by  his  own  son,  El,  whom 
Philo  identifies  with  the  Greek  Kronos,  and  represents 
as  the  presiding  deity  of  the  planet  Saturn  .  .  . 
Elyon,  which,  in  Hebrew,  means  the  Highest  is  used  in 
the  Old  Testament  as  a  predicate  of  God.  ...  It 
occurs  in  the  Phoenician  cosmogony  as  Eliun,  the  high- 
est God,  the  Father  of  Heaven,  who  was  the  father 
of  El" 

According  to  Sanchunvaton  (Euseb.  Proep.  i.  10) 
the  Phoenicians  called  God  Ihouv. 

The  combination  El  Elyon  occurs  in  but  two  chap- 
ters in  the  Bible, — Genesis  xiv.  and  Psalm  Ixxviii. 
(The  Revisers  translate  it  in  Genesis,  "God  Most 
High,"  but  in  the  Psalm  (verse  35),  "Most  High 
God.")  That  the  name  was  imported  from  the  earlier 
into  the  later  chapter  is  suggested  by  a  similar  associa- 
tion of  each  with  the  idea  of  purchase  or  redemption : 
"God  Most  High,  purchaser  of  heaven  and  earth" 
(Genesis),  "God  Most  High,  their  redeemer"  (Psalm). 
But  which  is  the  earlier?  Probably  the  Psalm;  for  it 
is  a  long  resume  of  the  traditional  history  of  Israel,  but 
contains  no  allusion  to  Abraham.  Had  its  unique 
name,  "El  Elyon,"  been  derived  from  any  such  tradi- 
tional source  surely  some  mention  of  Abraham  would 
have  been  made. 

The  Psalm  is  Elohistic.  Possibly  the  Phoenician 
name  for  God,  Elioun,  was  used  in  order  to  set  "El" 
above  it.     Or  it  may  be  that  as  Solomon  had  been 


154  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

declared  "Elyon  of  Kings"  (Psalm  Ixxxix.  27)  it  was 
important  to  recall  that  he  at  the  same  time  said,  "My 
Elohim,"  and  to  place  "El"  before  his  title.  This  con- 
jecture is  warranted  by  the  fact  that  in  both  of  the 
Psalms,  and  in  the  corresponding  passages,  God  is 
spoken  of  as  a  "Rock."  There  are  other  resemblances 
between  the  two  Psalms,  one  very  striking : 

Psalm  Ixxviii.  70 — "He  chose  David  also,  his  servant, 
and  took  him  from  the  sheepfolds." 

Psalm  Ixxxix.  19,  20 — "I  have  raised  one  elected  out 
of  the  people ;  I  have  discovered  David,  my  servant." 

The  Psalm  in  which  the  Septuagint  personalizes 
malki' -tzedek  (ex.)  into  "Melchizedek"  is  a  fragmen- 
tary little  piece,  with  two  incomprehensible  verses  at 
the  end  which  seem  to  allude  to  some  legend  or  folklore 
now  lost.  These  verses  (6  and  7)  are  incongruous  with 
the  preceding  ones  and  must  be  detached,  and  perhaps 
verse  5  also,  as  this  seems  an  anti-climax.  These  clos- 
ing verses  look  as  if  they  may  have  been  added  by  some 
admirer  of  Joshua's  slaughter  of  kings,  and  it  is  prob- 
able that  the  legend  of  Joshua's  making  his  captains 
tread  on  the  necks  of  the  five  kings  (Joshua  x.)  was 
developed  out  of  the  opening  verse  of  this  Psalm  : 

"Jahveh  said  to  my  lord  [Adonai],  Sit  thou  at  my  right  hand, 
Until  I  make  thine  enemies  thy  footstool." 

The  leader  of  these  kings  was  Adonai-Zedek,  who, 
like  Melchizedek,  was  King  of  Jerusalem ;  they  are  cer- 
tainly mythical  relatives,  their  names  meaning  "Lord  of 
Justice"  and  "King  of  Justice."  It  is  philologically 
impossible  that  any  persons  with  those  proper  names 
could  have  existed  in  Jerusalem  before  the  invasion  of 
the  Hebrews.  And  "Adonai-bezek,"  the  "radiant 
lord,"  whose  thumbs  and  toes  Joshua  cut  off  when  he 


SOLOMOX  MELCHIZEDEK.  1 55 

captured  Jerusalem,  is  a  transparent  variant  of  Adonai- 
zedek. 

When  the  city,  originally  named  Jebus,  began  to  be 
called  Salem  (see  Psalm  Ixxvi.  2),  the  aboriginal  peo- 
ple who  continued  to  dwell  there  might  naturally  dream 
of  their  ancient  kings,  as  the  Welch  and  Bretons  so  long 
did  of  Arthur,  "flower  of  kings,"  and  perhaps  similarly 
expect  their  return  to  restore  their  ancient  freedom ; 
and  it  may  have  become  a  useful  political  device  to  find 
beyond  the  ugly  legends  of  Joshua's  cruelty  to  their 
"just"  and  "shining"  lords  a  prettier  one,  made  out  of 
an  old  song,  of  an  earlier  "King  of  Justice,"  whose 
bread  and  wine  Abraham  had  eaten,  to  whom  he  had 
paid  tithes,  whose  deity,  El  Elyon,  the  father  of  Israel 
had  recognized  as  his  own,  and  with  whom  he  had  made 
a  treaty  of  salem,  or  peace, — Jebus  thus  becoming 
Jebus-Salem  (Jerusalem). 

Josephus  records  the  legend  as  it  was  no  doubt  gen- 
erally accepted  among  the  Jews  in  the  first  century  of 
our  era:  "Now,  the  King  of  Sodom  met  him  (Abram) 
at  a  certain  place  which  they  called  the  King  s  Dale, 
where  Melchizedek,  King  of  the  City  of  Salem,  received 
him.  That  name  signifies  the  righteous  king,  and  such 
he  was  without  dispute,  insomuch  that  on  that  account 
he  was  made  the  priest  of  God.  However,  they  after- 
ward called  Salem  Jerusalem."    (Antiq.  Bk.  i.  ch.  10.) 

Josephus  is  careful  to  identify  Salem  as  Jerusalem, 
and  in  vi.  ch.  10  of  the  same  work  states  that  the  King's 
Dale  (identified  as  the  Shaveh  where  Abraham  met 
Melchizedek,  Genesis  xiv.)  is  "two  furlongs  distant 
from  Jerusalem."  This  carefulness  may  have  been 
intended  to  distinguish  Melciiizcdck's  Salem  from  the 
northern  Shalem  (Genesis  xxxiii.  18),  a  place  associ- 


156  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

ated  with  Jacob,  and  apparently  representing  an  attempt 
to  set  up  a  rival  temple  to  that  in  Jerusalem.  It  was  an 
old  competition  about  tithes.  Abraham  paid  tithes  to 
Melchizedek,  King  of  Salem,  but  Jacob,  after  his  vision 
at  Bethel,  recognized  that  as  the  "house  of  God,"  and 
vowed  to  give  to  God  a  tenth  of  all  that  was  given  him 
(Genesis  xxviii).*  This  quarrel  between  rival  towns 
and  temples,  trying  each  to  draw  all  tithes  to  themselves, 
harmonized  in  the  later  legends  of  the  Bible,  need  not 
detain  us,  but  it  is  of  importance  to  remark  that  the 
story  of  Abram  meeting  the  King  of  Justice  and  Peace 
near  Jerusalem,  and  establishing  the  sanctity  of  that 
city,  corresponds  with,  and  is  counterbalanced  by, 
Jacob's  meeting  with  angels,  and  wrestling  with  a 
mysterious  "man,"  who,  it  is  hinted,  was  some  form  of 
God  himself.  This  reply  to  the  story  of  Abram  sug- 
gests that  at  the  time  of  that  tithe  controversy  between 
Bethel  and  Sion  Melchizedek  was  not  thought  of  as  a 
flesh-and-blood  king  or  a  mere  man,  but  as  a  shadowy 
shape,  evoked  from  actual  conditions  for  certain  pur- 
poses, and  named  in  accordance  with  the  history  or 
traditions  out  of  which  the  conditions  and  the  aims  were 
evolved. 

*  The  "  Salem  "  of  Gen.  xiv.  18,  and  the  "  Shalem  "  of  Gen.  xxiii.  18,  are 
evidently  competitive.  Also  Jacob's  naming  his  altar  "  El-Elohe-Israel"  seems 
an  answer  to  Abraham's  "  El-Elyon,"  as  ifsaying  that  the  latter  was  not  the 
God  of  Israel.  It  is  even  possible  that  the  name  "Luz"  (Gen.  xxviii.  19) 
changed  to  Beth-El,  after  Jacob's  vision  of  the  Ladder  and  setting  up  the 
pillar  there,  is  meant  to  correspond  with  the  "oaks  of  Mamre"  (Gen.  xiv.  13), 
where  Abram  dwelt  when  he  was  met  bv  the  priest  of  El  Elyon.  For  Abram 
had  also  built  an  altar  at  some  place  called  Beth-El  (Gen',  xiii.  3)  where  he 
called  on  the  name  of  the  Lord  and  received  a  promise  that  his  seed  should 
be  "  as  the  dust  of  the  earth,"  which  is  verbatim  the  promise  made  to  Jacob  at 
his  Beth-El  (Gen.  x.xviii.  i.|).  Now  Abram  next  moves  his  tent  to  the  "oak 
of  Mamre  "  in  Hebron  (Gen.  xiii.  18),  and  the  Hebrew  word  for  oak  is  Ehih. 
or  Eylon.  The  unusual  name  for  the  deity  of  both  Abram  and  Melchizedek, 
El-Elyon,  was  probably  selected  because  of  its  resemblance  to  the  sacred 
oak  or  Elah  of  that  place,  and  Jacob's  El-^/c/z^-Israel  was  no  doubt  meant  to 
invest  his  deity  with  the  same  sanctity.  Now  "  Luz  "  also  means  a  tree, — 
almond-tree, — and  was  also  a  name  of  the  Assvrian  goddess  Ishtar.  The  oak 
was  associated  also  with  Jacob,  who  buried  beneath  it  the  idols  of  his  house- 
hold (Gen.  xxxv.  i  g)  immediately  before  setting  up  his  altar  at  Luz  (the 
almond). 


SOLOMON  MELCHIZEDEK.  1 57 

In  investigations  of  this  kind,  concerned  with  ages 
really  prehistoric,  it  is  necessary  to  remember  at  every 
step  that  our  search  is  amid  eras  when  words  and  names 
were  at  once  counters  of  actual  forces  and  factors  of 
history.  How  serious  a  play  on  words  may  be  even  in 
historic  times  is  illustrated  by  a  Papacy  founded  on  the 
double  meaning  of  Pcier — a  man's  name  and  a  rock, — 
and  as  we  approach  earlier  epochs,  whose  issues  and 
struggles  have  long  passed  away,  and  their  once  an- 
tagonistic leaders  harmonised  by  pious  legends,  it  is 
largely  by  the  aid  of  words  and  names  that  we  are 
enabled  to  reach  even  historic  probabilities. 

As  to  Melchizedek,  my  inference  above  stated,  de- 
rived from  the  two  tithe  legends,  that  his  supernatural 
character  is  reflected  in  that  of  the  corresponding  phan- 
toms met  by  Jacob  may  not  be  generally  accepted,  but 
that  he  (Melchizedek)  was  so  understood  by  the  writer 
to  the  Hebrews  can  hardly  be  disputed.  Melchizedek 
is  there  (Hebrews  vii.)  declared  to  have  been  "without 
father,  without  mother,  without  genealogy,  having 
neither  beginning  of  days  nor  end  of  life,  being  assim- 
ilated unto  the  Son  of  God." 

In  the  third  century  the  Melchizedekian  sect  main- 
tained that  Melchizedek  was  not  a  man  but  a  heavenly 
power  superior  to  Jesus,  and  the  Hieracites  held  similar 
views.  Some  eminent  theologians  have  believed  that 
Melchizedek  was  Christ  himself.  Most  of  the  Christian 
theories  concerning  the  mysterious  king  are  virtual 
admissions  that  only  the  eye  of  faith  can  see  in  him  any 
actual  being  at  all.  How  then  was  this  mythical  being 
formed  ?'" 

*  It  may  be  said  in  passing,  that  tiie  legend  in  Gen.  xiv.,  as  was  first 
pointed  out  in  Calinet,  bears  some  resemblance  to  the  Hindu  myth  of  Soma, 
a  lunar  being,  who  discovered  the  juice  of  the  sacred  Soma  plant  {Asclepias 
acida),  called  "the  king  of  plants."    Soma  was  the  most  sacred  sacrifice  to 


158  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE, 

1.  A  suitable  nest  for  the  Melchizedek  Saga  existed 
near  Jerusalem,  in  a  vale  called  the  King's  Dale.  It 
seems  to  have  been  a  royal  racing  ground  (Targum  of 
Onkelos,  Gen.  xiv.  17)  or  hippodrome  (Ixx.  xlviii.  7), 
and  its  name  in  Hebrew  was  Emek-ham-ilfc/ec/i. 

2.  In  the  ancient  Psalm  ex.  i  we  have  Adonai 
(Lord),  and  in  verse  4  MWc/zi-Melech  (or  Moloch) 
king,  combined  with  tsedek,  justice. 

3.  Tsedek  (Tsaydoc  or  Zadok),  the  priest  who 
anointed  Solomon  to  be  king.  Tsaydoc  supplanted  the 
legitimate  High  Priest  Abiathar  who  had  taken  the  side 
of  the  legitimate  heir  to  David's  throne,  Adonijah,  sup- 
planted by  Solomon.  The  deprivation  of  Abiathar, 
and  exaltation  of  Tsaydoc  to  be  High  Priest  is  said 
(i  Kings  ii.  27)  to  have  been  in  fulfillment  of  "the 
word  of  Jahveh,  which  he  spake  concerning  the  house 
of  Eli  in  Shiloh."  The  reference  is  to  the  sentence 
passed  on  Eli  and  his  house,  to  which  Abiathar  be- 
longed, when  Jahveh  said,  "And  I  will  raise  me  up  a 
faithful  priest,  etc.,"  (i  Sam.  ii.  35).     Faithful  priests 

the  gods,  as  a  juice;  it  had  the  intoxicating  effect  of  wine;  and  the  lunar 
being,  Soma,  was  believed  to  be  still  alive,  though  invisible,  and  is  the  chief 
of  the  sacerdotal  tribe  to  this  day.  In  the  Vishnu  Purana,  Soma  is  called 
"  the  monarch  of  Brahmans  "  He  was  the  Hindu  Bacchus,  and  is  regarded 
as  the  guardian  of  healing  plants  and  constellations.  Melchizedek,  offering 
wine  to,  and  as  priest  of  God  Most  High  receiving  tribute  from,  the  "  High 
Father"  (Abram),  thus  bears  some  resemblance  to  Soma,  the  sacerdotal 
moon-god;  and  those  who  care  to  study  the  matter  further  may  be  reminded 
that  in  Babylonian  mythology  Malkit  seems  to  be  a  "Queen  of  Heaven" 
(moon),  and  is  connected  by  Goldziher  (Heb.  Myth.)  with  Milka  (Abram's 
sister-in-law),  whom  he  supposes  to  have  the  same  meaning.  It  is  remark- 
able, by  the  way,  that  the  writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  in  telling  the 
story  of  Abram  and  Melchizedek  minutely  and  critically,  omits  the  offering 
of  bread  and  wine.  This  is  not  only  an  indication  that  the  Epistle  was  writ- 
ten as  already  said,  before  Paul's  institution  of  the  eucharist  (i  Cor.  x.,  xi.), 
but  suggests  that  the  writer  may  have  suspected  the  offerings  as  pagan.  The 
Soma  juice  was  sacred  also  in  Persia,  and  is  the  Horn  of  the  Avesta.  Ewald 
says  of  the  story  in  Gen.  xiv.,  "The  whole  narrative  looks  like  a  fragment  torn 
from  a  more  general  history  of  Western  Asia,  merely  on  account  of  the  men- 
tion of  Abraham  contained  in  it."  {Hisi.  of  Israel,  p.  "508.  London,  1S67.) 
And  finally  it  may  be  noted  that  among  the  kings  Abram  smote,  just  before 
meeting  Melchizedek,  was  Chedorlaomer,  King  of  Elam.  Elam  is  south  of 
Assyria  and  east  of  Persia  proper;  if  he  fought  Abram  near  Jerusalem,  Ched- 
orlaomer was  about  one  thousand  miles  from  his  kingdom,  Elam.  Prob- 
ably it  was  not  he  but  a  name  and  legend  of  his  kingdom  that  drifted  into 
Jewish  folklore. 


SOLOMON  MELCHIZEDEK.  159 

were  called  "sons  of  Zadok/'  the  phrase  having  appar- 
ently become  proverbial  (Ezek.  xliv.  15). 

4.  In  I  Chron.  iii.  there  appear,  among  the  descend- 
ants of  Solomon,  "Amaziah,  Azariah  his  son,  Jotham 
his  son."  In  i  Chron.  vi.  we  find  among  descendants 
of  Zadok,  Ahimaaz,  Azariah  his  son,  Johanan  his  son. 
Johanan  is  also  among  Solomon's  descendants,  and 
among  the  descendants  of  both  Solomon  and  Zadok  is 
Shallum, — written  by  Josephus  Salloumos  (Bk.  x.  ch. 
8).  Josephus  also  says  that  Zadok  was  the  first  High 
Priest  of  Solomon's  Temple.  But  Solomon  himself, 
without  the  assistance  of  any  priest,  dedicated  the  Tem- 
ple, offered  the  sacrifices  on  that  occasion,  and  so  con- 
tinued :  "three  times  in  a  year  did  Solomon  offer  burnt 
offerings  and  peace  offerings  upon  the  altar  which  he 
built  to  Jahveh."  (i  Kings  ix.  25).  These  statements 
establish  a  probability  that  no  such  person  as  Zadok 
existed  at  all,  and  that  the  development  of  this  personi- 
fication of  justice  (zedek)  into  a  priestly  personage 
was  due  to  an  ecclesiastical  necessity  of  introducing  a 
priest  among  the  provisions  of  Solomon  for  the  temple. 
Zadok  is  thus  a  detachment  from  King  Solomon  of  the 
priestly  functions  he  had  discharged  in  the  temple, 
according  to  the  book  of  Kings ;  and  in  i  Chron.  vi., 
where  this  personification  is  completed,  the  Solomonic 
family .  names  are  found,  as  above,  recurring  as  de- 
scendants of  the  personification, — Zadok. 

These  names  are  the  fossil  remains  of  controversies 
with  Shilonite  and  Samaritan  pretensions,  which  ended 
in  consecrating  the  throne  and  altar  at  Jerusalem,  and 
they  prove  that  the  consecration  was  that  of  justice  and 
peace.  Of  these  the  Wise  Man  was  typical.  Solomon 
was  the  model   from  whom  all  of  these  ideals  were 


l6o  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

painted.  His  title,  Adonai,  and  his  equity  (Psalm  xlv. 
7,  ii)  are  combined  in  Adonizedek,  his  glory  (Psalm 
xlv.  3,  4)  is  in  Adonibezek;  his  high  priesthood  is 
allegorized  in  Zadok;  and  in  "Melchizedek,  King  of 
Salem,"  his  supreme  characters  are  summed  up,  "King 
of  Justice,  Prince  of  Peace." 

In  a  warlike  age  this  peacefulness  of  a  monarch  was 
the  great  and  supernatural  phenomenon.  It  is  the  very 
central  idea  of  the  whole  Solomonic  legend.  Solomon 
got  his  name  from  it,  even  the  name  with  Jahveh  in  it 
(Jedediah)  being  set  aside  ;  he  was  preferred  above  David 
to  build  the  temple,  because  David  was  a  warrior;  in 
building  the  temple  the  peace  was  not  broken  even  by 
the  noise  of  a  hammer,  the  stones  being  all  in  shape,  it 
seems  by  supernatural  power,  when  taken  from  the 
quarry,  so  as  to  be  noiselessly  fitted  together ;  he  would 
not  fight  even  those  who  were  rending  parts  of  his  king- 
dom away.  He  was  the  hero  of  the  Beatitudes, — the 
gentle  one  who  inherited  the  earth,  the  one  who  hun- 
gered and  thirsted  for  justice  and  was  filled,  the  peace- 
maker called  the  Son  of  God.  It  was  he  who  first  said. 
If  thine  enemy  hunger  give  him  food,  if  he  thirst  give 
him  drink.  And  all  this  was  allegorized  in  Melchize- 
dek, who,  when  his  country  was  invaded,  instead  of 
joining  the  five  kings  who  resisted,  loved  his  enemy, 
gave  the  invader  food  and  drink. 

We  thus  find  Solomon, — the  glorious  cosmopolitan 
and  secularist,  whose  name  Jahvism  could  not  utter 
without  a  shudder, — distributed  in  fable,  legend,  psalm, 
through  Hexateuch  and  Hagiographa,  and  finally  trans- 
figured into  a  type  of  divine  and  eternal  Sonship.  Thus 
he  appears  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  to  which  we 
now  return. 


SOLOMON  MELCIITZEDEK.  l6l 

In  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  Christ  is  invested  with 
the  mystical  robes  of  Solomon.  To  Christ  are  applied 
the  words,  "I  will  be  to  him  a  Father,  and  he  shall  be  to 
me  a  Son,"  quoted  from  Jahveh's  promise  to  David 
concerning  Solomon  (2  Sam.  vii.  14).  To  Christ  are 
twice  applied  the  words,  "Thou  art  my  Son,  this  day 
have  I  begotten  thee,"  quoted  from  Psalm  ii.  7,  ad- 
mittedly Solomonic.  From  Psalm  xlv.,  verses  6  and  7, 
ascriptions  to  Solomon,  are  applied  to  Christ  in  this 
Epistle.  And  Melchizedek  is  here  declared  to  be  "a 
great  man,"  "assimilated  unto  the  Son  of  God." 

We  may  here  recall  the  words  of  Josephus,  a  con- 
temporary of  our  writer,  who  says  that  Mdchizedek 
was  made  the  priest  of  God  on  account  of  his  righteous- 
ness (Ant.,  Bk.  i.  ch.  10).  It  may  have  been  that  there 
was  a  popular  belief  in  the  time  of  Josephus  that  Mel- 
chizedek received  his  ordination  from  Abram  himself, 
but  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  mysterious  king's  priest- 
hood was  believed  to  rest  upon  his  righteousness  and 
above  all  his  peacefulness. 

With  these  preliminaries  we  may  find  the  Epistle's 
argument  about  Melchizedek  less  "hard  of  interpreta- 
tion" than  the  writer  says  it  is.  After  speaking  of 
Abraham  as  having  "obtained"  the  promise,  not  merely 
because  it  was  God's  promise,  but  because  he  "patiently 
endured,"  having  argued  that  Christ,  "though  he  was  a 
Son,  yet  learned  obedience  by  the  things  that  he  suf- 
fered", this  Epistle  maintains  (vi.  20)  that  this  is  the 
believer's  hope,  whereby  he  enters  within  the  veil, 
"whither  as  a  forerunner  Jesus  entered  for  us,  having 
become  a  high  priest  forever  after  the  manner  of  Mel- 
chizedek." (The  sense  of  this  is  lost  in  the  E.  V. 
by  rendering  yvAiuvuz  "made" ;  the  argument  is  tliat 


l63  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

though  he  was  a  Son  of  God  even  that  could  not  make 
him  a  high  priest;  this  he  had  to  "become"  by  his  own 
merits,  uninheritable  even  from  God,  as  was  the  case 
with  Melchizedek.)  "For  this  Melchizedek,  being  of 
Salem,  priest  of  God  Most  High,  who  met  Abraham 
returning  from  the  slaughter  of  the  kings,  and  blessed 
him,  to  whom  also  Abraham  divided  a  tenth  part  of  all 
(being  first  by  interpretation  King  of  Righteousness, 
and  next  also  King  of  Salem,  that  is  Prince  of  Peace ; 
being  without  father,  without  mother,  without  gene- 
alogy, having  neither  beginning  of  days  nor  end  of  life, 
but  assimilated  (^/^v  acfuoixomidvoi)  unto  the  Son  of 
God),  abideth  a  priest  perpetually"  (vii.  1-3). 

The  mystical  clauses  of  verse  3  have  for  centuries 
been  an  unsolved  enigma  to  exegetists ;  and  Alford, 
after  summing  up  the  many  conjectures  as  to  their 
meaning,  expresses  his  feeling  that  the  writer  had  a 
thought  which  he  did  not  intend  us  to  comprehend ! 
Probably,  however,  the  writer  was  using  language 
understood  in  his  time,  and  which  may  be  interpreted 
by  comparison  with  expressions  familiar  in  Jewish  folk- 
lore. Some  of  these  are  preserved  in  the  apocryphal 
gospels.  Thus,  in  the  Pseudo-Matthew,  Levi,  the 
teacher  of  Jesus,  astounded  by  the  Child's  learning, 
says,  "I  think  he  was  born  before  the  flood."  In  the 
gospel  of  Thomas,  the  teacher  Zacchseus  says,  "This 
child  is  not  of  earthly  parents,  he  is  able  to  subdue  even 
fire.  Perhaps  he  was  begotten  before  the  world  was 
made."  These  ideas,  which  correspond  somewhat  to 
the  Teutonic  superstition  of  the  "changeling,"  are  trace- 
able in  the  Fourth  Gospel  (viii.  56-59),  where  Jesus  is 
stoned  for  saying,  "Before  Abraham  was  I  am." 

It  will  be  seen  that  by  this  early  writer  "to  the  He- 


SOLOMON  MELCIIIZEDEK.  163 

brews"  Jesus  was  not  thought  of  in  connection  with 
David,  but  bore  Solomon's  preeminent  title,  King  of 
Peace,  and  that  conferred  on  him  by  the  Queen  of 
Sheba,  King  of  Justice.  In  the  "Wisdom  of  Solomon" 
the  Prince  of  the  Golden  Age,  historically  associated 
with  idolatrous  shrines,  had  been  rehabilitated,  even 
apotheosized ;  he  was  now  a  sort  of  rival  of  Jesus  in 
divine  sonship.  The  writer  of  our  Epistle  therefore 
artistically,  not  to  say  artfully,  utilizes  a  composite 
word  made  into  a  proper  name  under  which  Solomon's 
combined  royalty  and  priesthood,  his  peace  and  justice, 
had  boen  detached  from  his  personality  and  personified. 
The  new  exaltation  of  Solomon  personally  was  thus 
ignored,  while  his  essential  glories,  his  wisdom,  and  his 
reclaimed  virtues,  were  woven  into  the  celestial  mantle 
of  mysterious  Alelchizedek,  and  through  him  passed  to 
the  shoulders  of  the  risen  Christ. 


CHAPTER    XV. 

THE    PAULINE   DEHUMANIZATION    OF   JESUS. 

The  Queen  of  Sheba  certainly  deserved  her  exalta- 
tion as  the  Hebrew  Athena,  and  the  homage  paid  to 
her  by  Jesus,  for  journeying  so  far  simply  to  hear  the 
wisdom  of  Solomon.  In  Jewish  and  Christian  folklore 
are  many  miraculous  tales  about  the  Queen's  visit, 
but  in  the  Biblical  records,  in  the  books  of  "Kings"  and 
"Chronicles,"  the  only  miracle  is  the  entire  absence  of 
anything  marvellous,  magical,  or  even  occult.  The 
Queen  was  impressed  by  Solomon's  science,  wisdom, 
the  edifices  he  had  built,  the  civilization  he  had  brought 
about;  they  exchanged  gifts,  and  she  departed.  It  is 
a  strangely  rational  history  to  find  in  any  ancient  annals. 

The  saying  of  Jesus  cited  by  Clement  of  Alexandria, 
"He  that  hath  marvelled  shall  reign,"  uttered  perhaps 
with  a  sigh,  tells  too  faithfully  how  small  has  been  the 
interest  of  grand  people  in  the  wisdom  that  is  "clear, 
undefiled,  plain."  They  are  represented  rather  by  the 
beautiful  and  wealthy  Marchioness  in  "Gil  Bias,"  whose 
favour  was  sought  by  the  nobleman,  the  ecclesiastic,  the 
philosopher,  the  dramatist,  by  all  the  brilliant  people, 
but  who  set  them  all  aside  for  an  ape-like  hunchback, 
with  whom  she  passed  many  hours,  to  the  wonder  of 
all,  until  it  was  discovered  that  the  repulsive  creature 
was  instructing  her  ladyship  in  cabalistic  lore  and 
magic. 

164 


DEIIUMANiZATION  OF  JESUS.  165 

There  is  much  human  pathos  in  this  longing  of  mortals 
to  attain  to  some  kind  of  real  and  intimate  perception 
beyond  the  phenomenal  universe,  and  to  some  personal 
assurance  of  a  future  existence;  but  it  has  cost  much 
to  the  true  wisdom  of  this  world.  Some  realization  of 
this  may  have  caused  the  sorrow  of  Jesus  at  Dalma- 
nutha,  as  related  in  Mark.  "The  Pharisees  came  forth 
and  began  to  question  with  him,  seeking  of  him  a  sign 
from  heaven,  testing  him.  And  he  sighed  deeply  in  his 
spirit,  and  saith.  Why  does  this  people  seek  a  sign  ?  I 
say  plainly  unto  you  no  sign  will  be  given  them.  And 
he  left  them,  and  reentering  the  boat  departed  to  the 
other  side." 

They  who  now  long  to  know  the  real  mind  of  Jesus 
are  often  constrained  to  repeat  his  deep  sigh  when  they 
find  the  most  probable  utterances  ascribed  to  him  per- 
verted by  the  marvel-mongers,  insomuch  that  to  the 
protest  just  quoted  Matthew  adds  a  self-contradictory 
sentence  about  Jonah.  That  this  unqualified  repudia- 
tion by  Jesus  of  miracles  should  have  been  preserved  at 
all  in  Mark,  a  gospel  full  of  miracles,  is  a  guarantee  of 
the  genuineness  of  the  incident,  and  of  the  comparative 
earliness  of  some  parts  of  that  gospel.  The  period  of 
sophistication  was  not  far  advanced.  Miracles  require 
time  to  grow.  But  the  deep  sigh  and  the  words  of 
Jesus,  taken  in  connection  with  the  entire  absence  from 
the  Epistles — the  earliest  New  Testament  documents — 
of  any  hint  of  a  miracle  wrought  by  him,  is  sufficient  to 
bring  us  into  the  presence  of  a  man  totally  different 
from  the  "Christ"  of  the  four  Gospels.* 

Those  who  seek  the  real  Jesus  will  find  it  the  least  part 
of  their  task  to  clear  away  the  particular  miracles 

*  The  name  Jesus  is  used  in  these  pages  for  the  man,  Christ  being  used 
(or  the  supernatural  or  risen  being. 


1 66  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

ascribed  to  him ;  that  is  easy  enough ;  the  critical  and 
difficult  thing  is  to  detach  from  the  anecdotes  and 
language  connected  with  him  every  admixture  derived 
from  the  belief  in  his  resurrection.  To  do  this  com- 
pletely is  indeed  impossible. 

Paul,  probably  a  contemporary  of  Jesus,  knew  well 
enough  the  vast  difference  between  the  man  "Jesus" 
and  the  risen  "Christ" ;  he  insisted  that  the  man  should 
be  ignored,  and  supplanted  by  the  risen  Christ,  as  re- 
vealed by  private  revelations  received  by  himself  after 
the  resurrection.  The  student  must  now  reverse 
that :  he  must  ignore  those  post-resurrectional  revela- 
tions if  he  would  know  Jesus  "after  the  flesh" — that  is, 
the  real  Jesus. 

In  an  age  when  immortality  is  a  familiar  religious 
belief  we  can  hardly  realize  the  agitation,  among  a  peo- 
ple to  whom  life  after  death  was  a  vague,  imported 
philosophy,  excited  by  the  belief  that  a  man  had  been 
raised  bodily  from  the  grave.  Immortality  was  no 
longer  hypothesis.  If  to  this  belief  be  added  the  further 
conviction  that  this  resurrection  was  preliminary  to  his 
speedy  reappearance,  and  the  world's  sudden  trans- 
formation, a  mental  condition  could  not  fail  to  arise  in 
which  any  ethical  or  philosophical  ideas  he  might  have 
uttered  while  "in  the  flesh"  must  be  thrown  into  the 
background,  as  of  merely  casual  or  temporary  impor- 
tance. Such  is  the  state  of  mind  reflected  in  the  Pauline 
Epistles.  In  them  is  found  no  reference  whatever  to 
any  moral  instructions  by  Jesus.  And  when  after  some 
two  generations  had  passed,  and  they  who  had  expected 
while  yet  living  to  meet  their  returning  Lord  had  died, 
those  who  had  heard  oral  reports  and  legends  concern- 


DEHUMANIZ AT/ON  OF  JESUS.  167 

ing  him  and  his  teachings  began  to  write  the  memoranda 
on  which  onr  Synoptical  Gospels  arc  based,  it  was  too 
late  to  give  these  without  adulterations  from  the  apos- 
tolic ecstasy.  His  casual  or  playful  remarks  were  by 
this  time  discoloured  and  distorted,  and  enormously 
swollen,  as  if  under  a  solar  microscope,  by  the  over- 
whelming conceptions  of  a  resurrection,  an  approaching 
advent,  a  subversion  of  all  nationalities  and  institutions. 
The  most  serious  complication  arises  from  the  extent 
to  which  the  pretended  revelations  of  Paul  have  been 
built  into  the  Gospels.  The  so-called  "conversion  of 
Paul"  was  really  the  conversion  of  Jesus.  The  facts 
can  only  be  gathered  from  Paul's  letters,  the  book  of 
"Acts"  being  hardly  more  historical  than  "Robinson 
Crusoe."  The  account  in  "Acts"  of  Paul's  "conver- 
sion" is,  however,  of  interest  as  indicating  a  purpose  in 
its  writers  to  raise  Paul  into  a  supernatural  authority 
equivalent  to  that  ascribed  to  Christ,  in  order  that  he 
might  set  aside  the  man  Jesus.  The  story  is  a  travesty 
of  that  related  in  the  "Gospel  According  to  the  He- 
brews," concerning  the  baptism  of  Jesus :  "And  a  voice 
out  of  the  heaven  saying,  'Thou  art  my  beloved  Son,  in 
thee  I  am  well  pleased' :  and  again,  T  have  this  day 
begotten  thee.'  And  straightway  a  great  light  shone 
around  the  place.  And  when  John  saw  it  he  saith  to 
him,  'Who  art  thou.  Lord?'  "  John  fell  down  before 
Jesus  as  did  Paul  before  Christ.  "At  midday,  O  King, 
I  saw  on  the  way  a  light  from  heaven,  above  the  bright- 
ness of  the  sun,  shining  round  about  me,  and  them  that 
journeyed  with  me.  And  when  we  were  all  fallen  to  the 
earth,  I  heard  a  voice  saying  to  me  in  the  Hebrew 
language,  'Saul,  Saul,  why  pcrsecutest  thou  me?     It  is 


1 68  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

hard  for  thee  to  kick  against  the  goad.'  And  I  said, 
'Who  art  thou,  Lord?'  "  (Precisely  what  John  said  to 
Jesus  at  the  baptism.) 

This  story  (Acts  xxvi.  13-15),  quite  inconsistent  with 
Paul's  letters,  is  throughout  very  ingenious.  Besides 
associating  Paul  with  the  supernatural  consecration  of 
Jesus,  it  replies,  by  calling  him  Saul,  to  the  Ebionite 
declaration  that  Paul  had  been  a  pagan,  who  had  become 
a  Jewish  proselyte  with  the  intention  of  marrying  the 
High  Priest's  daughter.  There  is  no  reason  to  sup- 
pose that  Paul  was  ever  called  Saul  during  his  life,  and 
his  salutation  of  two  kinsmen  in  Rome  with  Latin 
names,  Andronicus  and  Junias  (Romans  xvi.  7),  ren- 
ders it  probable  that  he  was  not  entirely  if  at  all  Hebrew. 
The  sentence,  "It  is  hard  for  thee  to  kick  against  the 
goad,"  is  a  subtle  answer  to  any  who  might  think  it 
curious  that  the  story  of  the  resurrection  carried  no  con- 
viction to  Paul's  mind  at  the  time  of  its  occurrence  by 
suggesting  that  in  continuing  his  persecutions  he  was 
going  against  his  real  belief — kicking  against  the  goad. 

Paul,  however,  knows  nothing  of  this  theatrical  con- 
version in  his  letters.  But  in  severe  competition  with 
other  "preeminent  apostles,"  who  were  preaching  "an- 
other Christ"  from  his,  he  pronounces  them  accursed, 
supporting  an  authority  above  theirs  by  declaring  that 
he  had  repeated  interviews  with  the  risen  Christ,  and  on 
one  occasion  had  been  taken  up  into  the  third  heaven 
and  even  into  Paradise !  The  extremes  to  which  Paul 
was  driven  by  the  opposing  apostles  are  illustrated  in 
his  intimidation  of  dissenting  converts  by  his  pretence 
to  an  occult  power  of  withering  up  the  flesh  of  those 
whom  he  disapproves  ( i  Cor.  v.  5 ) .  He  tells  Timothy 
of  two  men,  Hymenceus  and  Alexander,  whom  he  thus 


DEHUMANIZAriOy  OF  JESUS.  169 

"delivered  over  to  Satan"  that  "they  may  be  taught  not 
to  blaspheme" — the  blasphemy  in  this  case  being  the 
belief  (now  become  orthodoxy)  that  the  dead  were  not 
sleeping  in  their  graves  but  passed  into  heaven  or  hell 
at  death.  In  the  book  of  "Acts"  (xiii.)  this  claim  of 
Paul's  seems  to  have  been  developed  into  the  Evil  Eye 
(which  he  fastened  on  Bar  Jesus,  whose  eyes  thereon 
went  out),  and  may  perhaps  account  for  the  similar 
sinister  power  ascribed  to  some  of  the  Popes. 

In  this  story  of  Bar  Jesus,  Christ  is  associated  with 
Paul  in  striking  the  learned  man  blind  (xiii.  11),  and 
the  development  of  such  a  legend  reveals  the  extent  to 
which  Jesus  had  been  converted  by  Paul.  In  i  Cor.  ii. 
he  presents  a  Christ  whose  body  and  blood,  being  not 
precisely  discriminated  in  the  sacramental  bread  and 
wine,  had  made  some  participants  sickly  and  killed 
others,  in  addition  to  the  damnation  they  had  eaten  and 
drank.  He  does  not  mention  that  any  who  communi- 
cated correctly  had  been  physically  benefited  thereby ; 
only  the  malignant  powers  appear  to  have  had  any 
utility  for  Paul. 

That  this  menacing  Christ  may  have  been  needed  to 
intimidate  converts  and  build  up  churches  is  probable ; 
that  such  a  being  was  nothing  like  Jesus  in  the  flesh, 
but  had  to  come  by  pretended  posthumous  revelation, 
as  an  awful  potentate  whose  human  flesh  had  been  but 
a  disguise,  is  certain.  We  need  not,  therefore,  be  sur- 
prised to  find  that  nearly  everything  pharisaic,  cruel, 
and  ungentlcmanly,  ascribed  to  Jesus  in  the  synoptical 
Gospels,  is  fabricated  out  of  Paul's  Epistles.  Paul 
compares  rival  apostles  to  the  serpent  that  beguiled 
Eve  (2  Cor.  xi.  3,  4),  and  Christ  calls  his  opponents 
offspring  of  vipers.     The  fourth  Gospel,  apostolic  in 


170  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

spirit,  degrades  Jesus  independently,  but  it  also  borrows 
from  Paul.  Paul  personally  delivered  some  over  to 
Satan,  and  the  intimation  in  John  xiii.  27,  "after  the 
sop,  then  entered  Satan  into  Judas,"  accords  well  with 
what  Paul  says  about  the  unworthy  communicant  eating 
and  drinking  damnation  (i  Cor.  xi.  29). 

The  Eucharist  itself  was  probably  Paul's  own  adapta- 
tion of  a  Mithraic  rite  to  Christian  purposes.  There  is 
no  reason  to  suppose  that  there  was  anything  sancti- 
monious in  the  wine  supper  which  Jesus  took  with  his 
friends  at  the  time  of  the  Passover,  and  Paul's  testimony 
concerning  the  way  it  had  been  observed  is  against  any 
over  with  you?"*  Had  it  been  other  than  a  pleasant 
Epiphanius  from  the  Gospel  according  to  the  Hebrews 
show  that  he  desired  to  draw  his  friends  away  from 
the  sacrificial  feature  of  the  festival :  "Where  wilt 
thou  that  we  prepare  for  the  passover  to  eat  ?"  .  .  . 
"Have  I  desired  with  desire  to  eat  this  flesh,  the  pass- 
over  with  you?"t  Had  it  been  other  than  a  pleasant 
wine  supper  it  could  not  in  so  short  a  time  have  become 
the  jovial  festival  which  Paul  describes  (i  Cor.  xi.  20), 
nor,  in  order  to  reform  it,  would  he  have  needed  the 
pretence  that  he  had  received  from  Christ  the  special 
revelation  of  details  of  the  Supper  which  he  gives,  and 
which  the  Gospels  have  followed.     Having  substituted 

*  About  1832  the  Rev.  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  notified  his  congregation 
in  Boston  (Unitarian)  tiiat  he  could  no  longer  administer  the  "  Lord's  Sup- 
per," and  near  the  same  time  the  Rev.  W.  J.  Fox  took  the  same  course 
at  South  Place  Chapel,  London.  The  Boston  congregation  clung  to  the 
sacrament,  and  gave  up  their  minister  to  mankind.  The  London  congrega- 
tion gave  up  the  sacrament,  and  there  was  substituted  for  it  the  famous  South 
Place  Banquet,  which  was  attended  by  such  men  as  Leigh  Hunt,  Mill, 
Thomas  Campbell,  Jerrold,  and  such  women  as  Harriet  Martineau,  Eliza 
Flower,  Sarah  Flower  Adams  (who  wrote  "Nearer,  My  God,  To  Thee"). 
The  speeches  and  talk  at  this  banquet  were  of  the  highest  character,  and  the 
festival  was  no  doubt  nearer  in  spirit  to  the  supper  of  Jesus  and  his  friends 
than  any  sacrament. 

t  Dr.  Nicholson's  "  The  Gospel  According  to  the  Hebrews,  p.  60.  In  all 
of  my  references  to  this  Gospel  I  depend  on  this  learned  and  very  useful 
work. 


DEIIUMANIZATION   OF   JESUS.  171 

a  human  for  an  animal  sacrifice  ("our  passovcr  also 
hath  been  sacrificed,  Christ,"  i  Cor.  v.  7),  he  restores 
precisely  that  sacrificial  feature  to  which  Jesus  had 
objected ;  and  in  harmony  with  this  goes  on  to  show 
that  human  lives  have  been  sacrificed  to  the  majestic 
real  presence  (i  Cor.  xi.  30).  He  had  learned,  per- 
haps by  "pagan"  experiences,  what  power  such  a  sacra- 
ment might  put  into  the  priestly  hand.* 

It  is  Paul  who  first  appointed  Christ  the  judge  of 
quick  and  dead  (i  Tim.  iv.  i).  He  describes  to  the 
Thessalonians  (2  Thes.  i.)  "the  revelation  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  from  heaven  with  the  angels  of  his  power  in  flam- 
ing fire,  rendering  vengeance  to  them  that  know  not 
God,"  and  the  "eternal  destruction"  of  these.  Hence, 
"I  never  knew  you"  becomes  a  formula  of  damnation 
put  into  the  mouth  of  Christ.  "I  know  you  not"  is  the 
brutal  reply  of  the  bridegroom  to  the  five  virgins,  whose 
lamps  were  not  ready  on  the  moment  of  his  arrival. 
The  picturesque  incidents  of  this  parable  have  caused 
its  representation  in  pretty  pictures,  which  blind  many 
to  its  essential  heartlcssness.  It  is  curious  that  it  should 
be  preserved  in  a  Gospel  which  contains  the  words, 
"Knock,  and  it  shall  be  opened  unto  you :  for  every  one 
that  asketh  receiveth,  and  he  that  seeketh  findeth,  and 
to  him  that  knocketh  it  shall  be  opened."  The  parable 
is  fabricated  out  of  i  Thes.  v.,  where  Paul  warns  the 
converts  that  the  Lord  comcth  as  a  thief  in  tne  night, 
that  there  will  be  no  escape  for  those  who  then  slumber, 
that  they  must  not  sleep  like  the  rest,  but  watch,  "for 
God  hath  appointed  us  not  unto  wrath." 

*  It  has  always  been  a  condilioii  of  missionary  propajjandism  that  the 
new  religion  must  adopt  in  some  furni  the  popular  festivals,  cherished  ob- 
servances and  talismans  of  the  folk.  It  will  he  seen  by  i  Cor.  x.  14-22  that 
Paul's  eucharist  was  only  a  competitor  with  existing  eucharists,  with  their 
"cup  of  devils,'"  as  he  calls  it. 


172  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

The  Christian  dogma  of  the  unpardonable  sin,  sub- 
stituted for  the  earHer  idea  of  an  unrepentable  sin,  was 
developed  out  of  Paul's  fatalism.  He  writes,  "For  this 
cause  God  sendeth  them  a  strong  delusion  that  they 
should  believe  a  lie"  (2  Thes.  ii).  Although  this  is  not 
connected  in  any  Gospel  with  the  inexpiable  sin,  we  find 
its  spirit  animating  the  Paul-created  Christ  in  Mark 
iv.  11:  "Unto  them  that  are  without  all  these  things 
are  done  in  parables,  that  seeing  they  may  see  and  not 
perceive,  and  hearing  they  may  hear  and  not  under- 
stand :  lest  at  any  time  they  should  be  converted,  and 
their  sins  should  be  forgiven  them."  This  is  imported 
from  Paul  (Rom.  xi.  7,  8)  :  "That  which  Israel  seeketh 
for,  that  he  obtained  not ;  but  the  elect  obtained  it  and 
the  rest  were  hardened  ;  according  as  it  is  written,  God 
gave  them  a  spirit  of  stupor,  eyes  that  they  should  not 
see,  and  ears  that  they  should  not  hear,  unto  this  very 
day." 

Whence  came  this  Christ  who,  in  the  very  chapter 
where  Jesus  warns  men  against  hiding  their  lamp  under 
a  bushel,  carefully  hides  his  teaching  under  a  parable 
for  the  express  purpose  of  preventing  some  outsiders 
from  being  enlightened  and  obtaining  forgiveness  ? 

Jesus  could  not  have  said  these  things  tmless  he 
plagiarized  from  Paul  by  anticipation.  Deduct  from 
the  Gospels  all  that  has  been  fabricated  out  of  Paul 
(I  have  given  only  the  more  salient  examples)  and  there 
will  be  found  little  or  nothing  morally  revolting,  nothing 
heartless.  Superstitions  abound,  but  so  far  as  Jesus  is 
concerned  they  are  nearly  all  benevolent  in  their  spirit. 

But  even  after  we  have  removed  from  the  Gospels 
the  immoralities  of  Paul  and  the  pharisaisms  so  pro- 
found as  to  suggest  the  proselyte,  after  we  have  turned 


DEHUMANfZATION   OF  JESUS.  1 73 

from  his  Christ  to  seek  Jesus,  we  have  yet  to  divest  him 
of  the  sombre  vestments  of  a  supernatural  being,  who 
could  not  open  his  lips  or  perform  any  action  but  in 
relation  to  a  resurrection  and  a  heavenly  office  of  which 
he  could  never  have  dreamed.     Was  he 

"The  faultless  monster  wliom  tlic  world  ne'er  saw"? 

Did  he  never  laug'h?  Did  he  eat  with  sinners  only 
to  call  them  to  repentance?  Did  he  get  the  name  of 
wine-bibber  for  his  "salvationism," — or  was  it  because, 
like  Omar  Khayyam,  he  defied  the  sanctimonious  and 
the  puritanical  by  gathering  with  the  intellectual,  the 
scholarly,  the  Solomonic  clubs  ? 

To  Paul  we  owe  one  credible  item  concerning  Jesus, 
that  he  was  originally  wealthy  (2  Cor.  viii.  9),  and  as 
Paul  mentioned  this  to  inculcate  liberality  in  contribu- 
tors, it  is  not  necessary  to  suppose  that  he  alluded  to  his 
heavenly  riches.  At  any  rate,  the  few  sayings  that  may 
be  reasonably  ascribed  to  Jesus  are  those  of  an  educated 
gentleman,  and  strongly  suggest  his  instruction  in  the 
college  of  Hillel,  w'hose  spirit  remained  there  after  his 
death,  which  occurred  when  Jesus  was  at  least  ten  years 
old. 

To  a  pagan  who  asked  Hillel  concerning  the  law, 
he  answered:  "That  which  you  like  not  for  yourself 
do  not  to  thy  neighbour,  that  is  the  whole  law  ;  the  rest 
is  but  commentary."  It  will  be  observed  that  Hillel 
humanizes  the  law  laid  down  in  Lev.  xix.  18,  where  the 
Israelites  are  to  love  each  his  neighbour  among  "the 
children  of  thy  people"  as  himself.  Even  Paul  (Rom. 
xiii.  8,  Gal.  v.  14)  quotes  it  for  a  rule  among  the  believ- 
ers, while  hurling  anathema  on  others.  But  Jesus  is 
made  (Matt.  vii.  12)  to  inflate  the  rule  into  the  imprac- 
ticable form  of  "All  things  whatsoever  ye  would  that 


174  SOLOMONIC   LITERATURE. 

men  should  do  unto  you,  even  so  do  ye  also  unto  them." 
By  which  rule  a  wealthy  Christian  would  give  at  least 
half  his  property  to  the  first  beggar,  as  he  would  wish 
the  beggar  to  do  to  him  were  their  situations  reversed. 
This  might  be  natural  enough  in  a  community  hourly 
expecting  the  end  of  the  world  and  their  own  instalment 
in  palaces  whose  splendour  would  be  proportioned  to 
their  poverty  in  this  world.  But  when  this  delusion  faded 
the  rule  reverted  to  what  Hillel  said,  and  no  doubt  Jesus 
also,  as  we  find  it  in  the  second  verse  of  "Didache," 
the  Teaching  of  the  Tzvclvc  Apostles.  It  is  a  prin- 
ciple laid  down  by  Confucius,  Buddha,  and  all  the 
human  "prophets,"  and  one  followed  by  every  gentle- 
man, not  to  do  to  his  neighbour  what  he  would  not  like 
if  done  to  himself.  But  it  is  removed  out  of  human 
ethics  and  strained  ad  ahsurdiun  by  the  second-advent- 
ist  version  put  into  the  mouth  of  Jesus  by  Matthew. 
I  have  dwelt  on  this  as  an  illustration  of  how  irrecover- 
ably a  man  loses  his  manhood  when  he  is  made  a  God. 

Irrecoverably !  In  the  second  Clementine  Epistle 
(xii.  2)  it  is  said,  "For  the  Lord  himself,  having  been 
asked  by  some  one  when  his  kingdom  should  come, 
said.  When  the  two  shall  be  one,  and  the  outside  as  the 
inside,  and  the  male  with  the  female  neither  male  nor 
female."  Perhaps  a  humorous  way  of  saying  Never. 
Equally  remote  appears  the  prospect  of  recovering  the 
man  Jesus  from  his  Christ-sepulchre.  Even  among 
rationalists  there  are  probably  but  few  who  would  not 
be  scandalized  by  any  thorough  test  such  as  Jesus  is 
said,  in  the  Nazarene  Gospel,  to  have  requested  of  his 
disciples  after  his  resurrection,  "Take,  feel  me,  and  see 
that  I  am  not  a  bodiless  demon !"  Without  blood, 
without  passion,  he  remains  without  the  experiences  and 


DEHUMANIZATION  OF  JESUS.  1 75 

faults  that  mould  best  men,  as  Shakespeare  tells  us; 
he  so  remains  in  the  nerves  where  no  longer  in  the  intel- 
lect, insomuch  that  even  many  an  agnostic  would  shud- 
der if  any  heretic,  taking  his  life  in  his  hand,  should 
maintain  that  Jesus  had  fallen  in  love,  or  was  a  married 
man,  or  had  children. 


CHAPTER    XVI. 

THE  MYTHOLOGICAL  MANTLE  OF  SOLOMON  FALLEN 
ON   JESUS. 

It  is  no  part  of  my  aim  to  prove  miracles  impossible, 
nor  to  consider  whether  one  or  another  alleged  wonder 
might  not  be  really  within  the  powers  of  an  exceptional 
man.  In  the  absence  of  any  apostolic  allusion  to  any 
extraordinary  incident  in  the  life  of  Jesus,  and  his  own 
declaration  (for  the  evangelists  could  not  have  invented 
a  rebuke  to  their  own  narratives)  that  miracles  were 
the  vain  expectation  of  a  people  in  distress  and  degrada- 
tion, such  records  have  lost  their  historic  character. 
As  Gibbon  said  in  the  last  century,  it  requires  a  miracle 
of  grace  to  make  a  believer  in  miracles,  and  even  among 
the  uncritical  that  miracle  is  not  frequent.  In  the  New 
Testament  belief  in  miracle  has  its  natural  corollary  in 
a  miraculous  morality, — a  dissolution  of  earthly  ties,  a 
severance  from  worldly  affairs,  a  non-resistance  and 
passiveness  under  wrongs,  which  are  in  perfect  accord 
with  persons  moving  in  an  apocalyptic  dream,  but  not 
with  a  world  awakened  from  that  dream. 

But  at  the  root  of  the  unnatural  miracles  is  the  natural 
miracle — the  heart  of  man.  We  are  such  stuff  as 
dreams  are  made  on,  as  the  miracle-working  poet  re- 
minds us ;  our  little  life  is  surrounded  with  a  sleep,  a 
realm  of  dreams, — visions  that  give  poetic  fulfilment  to 
hopes  born  of  hard  experience.     Na  biblical  miracle  in 

176 


SOLOMOX  AND    JESUS.  1 77 

its  literal  form  is  so  beautiful  and  impressive  as  the  his- 
tory of  its  origin  and  development  as  traced  by  the  stu- 
dent of  mythology.  The  growth,  for  example,  of  a 
simple  proverb  ascribed  to  Solomon  "He  that  trusteth 
in  his  riches  shall  fall,  but  the  just  shall  flourish  as  a 
green  leaf"  into  a  hymn  (Ps.  Hi.)  ;  the  association  of 
this  Psalm,  by  its  Hebrew  caption,  with  hungry  David 
eating  the  shewbread  of  the  temple,  and  the  king's 
slaying  the  priests  who  permitted  it ;  the  use  of  this 
legend  by  Jesus  when  his  disciples  were  censured  for 
plucking  the  corn  on  the  Sabbath  (with  perhaps  some 
humorous  picture  of  a  great  king  in  Heaven  angry 
because  hungry  men  ate  a  few  grains  of  corn,  crumbs 
from  his  royal  table)  pointed  with  advice  that  the  cen- 
sors should  learn  that  God  desires  charity  and  not  sacri- 
fice ;  the  development  of  this  into  an  early  Christian 
burden  against  the  rich,  which  took  the  form  of  an  old 
Oriental  fable,*  to  which  a  Jewish  connotation  was  given 
by  giving  the  poor  man  in  Paradise  the  name  of  Lazarus 
(i.  e.  Eleazar,  who  risked  his  life  to  obtain  water  for 
famished  David,  a  story  that  may  have  been  referred  to 
by  Jesus  along  with  that  of  the  shewbread)  ;  the  trans- 
formation of  this  parable  into  a  quasi-historical  narra- 
tive representing  the  return  of  Lazarus  from  Abraham's 
bosom,  his  poverty  omitted  ;  the  European  combination 
of  the  parable  and  the  history  by  creating  a  St.  Lazarus 
("one  helped  by  God"),  yet  appointing  him  the  helper 
of  beggars  {lazzaroni)  :  these  items  together  represent 
a  continuity  of  the  human  spirit  through  thousands  of 
years,  surmounting  obstructive  superstitions,  holding 

*  Ormazd  entrusted  Zoroaster  (or  seven  days  v.ith  omniscience,  during 
wtiich  time  lie  saw,  besidrs  many  other  things,  "  a  celebrity  witti  mucn 
wealth,  whose  soul,  infamous  iti  the  body,  was  hungry  and  jaundiced  and  in 
h"ll,  .  .  and  I  saw  a  beggar  with  no  wealth  nnd  lielpless  and  his  soul  was 
thrivin  (  in  paradise."— //uAtw.fw  Vast.  Hacred  Books  of  the  East,  Vol.  V| 
p.  197. 


17S  SOLOMONIC   LITERATURE. 

Still  the  guiding  thread  of  humanity  through  long  laby- 
rinths of  legend. 

To  fix  on  any  one  stage  in  such  an  evolution,  detach 
it,  affirm  it,  is  to  wrest  a  true  scripture  to  its  destruction. 
Few  can  really  be  interested  in  Abimelech  and  the 
shewbread ;  no  one  now  believes  that  a  rich  man  must 
go  to  hell  because  he  is  rich,  nor  a  pauper  to  Paradise 
because  of  his  pauperism ;  and  none  can  intelligently 
believe  the  narrative  of  the  resurrection  of  Lazarus 
without  believing  that  in  Jesus  miraculous  power  was 
associated  with  the  unveracity  and  vanity  ascribed  to 
him  in  that  narrative.  But  take  the  legends  all  to- 
gether, and  in  them  is  visible  the  supersacred  heart  of 
humanity  steadily  developing  through  manifold  sym- 
bols and  fables  the  religion  of  human  helpfulness  and 
happiness.  The  study  of  mythology  is  the  study  of 
nature. 

The  theory  already  stated  {^ante  I),  that  illegitimacy 
or  irregularity  of  birth  was  a  sign  of  authentication  for 
"the  God-anointed,"  finds  some  corroboration  in  the 
claim  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  that  Jesus,  like 
Melchizedek,  was  without  father,  mother,  or  genealogy. 
His  double  nature  is  suggested :  "Our  Lord  sprung 
out  of  Judah"  (vii.  14),  yet  (verse  16),  as  priest,  he 
has  arisen  "not  after  the  law  of  a  carnal  commandment, 
but  after  the  power  of  an  indissoluble  life."  The  writer 
admits  that  what  he  writes  about  Melchizedek  is  "hard  of 
interpretation,"  and  perhaps  it  so  proved  to  the  genealo- 
gist (Matt,  i.)  who  apparently  was  animated  by  a  desire 
to  make  out  a  carnal-law  inheritance  of  the  throne,  yet 
not  so  legitimate  as  to  exclude  divine  interference  at 
various  stages.  In  the  forty-two  generations  onJy  five 
mothers  are  named, — all  associated  either  with  sexual 


SOLOMON  AND   JESUS.  1 79 

immorality  or  sonic  kind  of  irregularity  in  their  matri- 
monial relations.  Taniar,  through  whose  adultery  with 
her  father-in-law,  Judali,  his  almost  extinet  line  was  pre- 
served, is  already  a  holy  woman  in  the  book  of  Ruth  (iv. 
12),  and  the  association  there  of  Ruth's  name  with  this 
particular  one  of  the  many  female  ancestors  of  her  son, 
and  her  mention  in  Matthew,  look  as  if  some  editor  of 
Ruth  as  well  as  the  genealogist  desired  to  cast  suspicion 
on  her  midnight  visit  to  Boaz.  "The  Lord  gave  Tamar 
conception,  and  she  bore  a  son" — grandfather  of  David. 
It  is  also  doubtful  whether  Rahab,  who  comes  next  to 
Tamar  in  Matthew's  list,  is  called  a  harlot  in  the  book 
of  Joshua :  Znnch  is  said  to  mean  "hostess"  or  "tavern- 
keeper."  But  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  and  in  that 
of  James  she  becomes  a  glorified  harlot.  The  next 
female  ancestor  of  Jesus  mentioned  is  "her  of  Uriah." 
The  name  of  the  woman  is  not  given, — the  important 
fact  being  apparently  that  she  was  somebody's  wife. 
Our  translators  have  supplied  no  fewer  than  five  words 
to  save  this  text  from  signifying  that  Bathsheba  was  still 
Uriah's  wife  when  Solomon  was  born. 

The  next  ancestress  named  after  the  mother  of  Solo- 
mon is  the  mother  of  Jesus,  Mary,  in  whom  Bathsheba 
finds  transfiguration.  The  exaltation  of  the  adulterous 
mother  of  Solomon  has  already  been  referred  to  (ante 
II.),  and  the  traditional  ascription  to  her  of  the  author- 
ship of  the  last  chapter  of  Proverbs.  She  was  also 
supposed  to  be  the  original  or  model  of  "the  Virtuous 
Woman"  therein  portrayed !  Now,  in  that  same  chap- 
ter she  is  pronounced  "blessed,"  and  excelling  all  the 
daughters  who  have  done  virtuously  (Cf.  Luke  i.  28, 
42).  In  the  "Wisdom  of  Solomon"  (ix.  5)  a  phrase  is 
used  by  Solomon  which  is  also  used  by  his  mother 


I  So  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

(Bathsheba)  when  she  conjured  from  David  the  decree 
for  his  succession, — "thine  handmaiden"  (i  Kings  i.). 
Solomon  says,  "For  I,  thy  servant,  and  son  of  thy  hand- 
maiden," etc.  This  was  written  in  a  popular  work 
about  the  time  of  the  birth  of  Jesus.  We  find  the 
"blessed"  of  Proverbs  xxxi.  28,  and  the  "handmaiden" 
of  the  "Wisdom  of  Solomon"  both  in  Mary's  magnifi- 
cat: "For  he  hath  regarded  the  low  estate  of  his  hand- 
maiden ;  for  behold,  from  henceforth  all  generations 
shall  call  me  blessed." 

In  Ecclesiasticus  (xv.  2)  we  find  the  enigmatic  clause 
concerning  Solomonic  "Sophia,"  personified  Wisdom: 

The  Vulgate  translates:  "Ft  obviabit  illi  quasi  mater 
honorificata,  et  quasi  mulier  a  virginitate  suscipiet 
ilium." 

Wyclifife  translates  the  Vulgate :  "And  it  as  a  modir 
onourid  schal  meete  hym,  and  as  a  v/omman  fro  vir- 
gynyte  schal  take  him." 

The  Authorised  Version  has :  "And  as  a  mother 
shall  she  meet  him,  and  receive  him  as  a  wife  married 
of  a  virgin." 

In  the  Variorum  Teacher's  Bible  the  reading  "maiden 
wife"  is  suggested,  and  reference  is  made  to  Leviticus 
xxi.  13,  "And  he  shall  take  a  wife  in  her  virginity." 
But  the  Septuagint,  which  Jesus  Ben  Sira  would  follow 
were  he  quoting,  uses  simple  words  there :  oh-cq  yuvai- 
xa  TzapOhivj  [sz  zoo  yi'jooz  chrou^  Xrj(l'E.Tai, 

(The  words  in  crochets  are  added  by  the  LXX.) 

The  clause  in  Ecclus.  xv.  2,  taken  with  the  chapter  it 
continues,  conveys  to  me  an  impression  of  rhaosodical 
paradox,  as  when  Dante  apostrophises  Mary  :     "O  Vir- 


SO/.OMOy  AND   JESUS.  iSl 

gin  Mother,  daughter  of  thy  son !"  The  Semitic  god- 
dess is  born,  Wisdom,  sister  of  virginal  Athena  of  the 
Parthenon,  yet  fulfilHng  the  Solomonic  exaltation  of 
the  Virtuous  Woman,  who  is  also  a  wife.  She  is  there- 
fore the  Virgin  Bride. 

But  whether  this  interpretation  is  correct  or  not,  it 
cannot  be  doubted  that  this  strange  phrase  in  a  house- 
hold book  might  easily  convey  that  impression,  and  that 
to  believers  in  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  the  feeling  that 
he  must  also  have  entered  the  world  in  a  supernatural 
way  might  naturally  have  associated  Aliriam  his  mother 
with  the  virgin  bride,  W' isdom. 

The  evolution  of  Wisdom  into  the  Holy  Spirit  has 
been  traced  {ante  XII.),  and  it  is  sufficient  to  men- 
tion here  that  in  the  "Gospel  according  to  the  Hebrews," 
Jesus  uses  the  phrase  "My  mother  the  Holy  Spirit." 

In  the  "Wisdom  of  Solomon"  the  resurrected  Solo- 
mon says,  "I  was  nursed  in  swaddling  clothes,  and  that 
with  cares"  (vii.  4,  cf.  Luke  ii.  7).  This  might  be  said 
of  every  babe,  but  the  King,  having  begun  by  saying 
"I  myself  also  am  a  mortal  man,"  mentions  the  swad- 
dling clothes  as  a  sign  of  lowliness ;  and  the  impression 
made  by  this  item  in  the  Birth-legend  of  Jesus  is  shown 
by  a  passage  in  the  Arabic  Gospel  of  the  Infancy.  It 
is  said  that  when  the  Wise  Men  came,  in  obedience  to  a 
prophecy  of  Zoroaster,  Mary  rewarded  their  gifts  with 
one  of  the  child's  "Swaddling  bands,"  which  on  their 
return  to  their  own  land  withstood  the  power  of  fire, 
in  which  it  was  tested. 

The  infant  Jesus  receives  gifts  of  the  Wise  Men, 
traceable  to  the  gold,  silver,  and  spices  brought  by  the 
Queen  of  Sheba  (afterwards  "Sophia")  to  Solomon. 
(Cf.   also  Psalm  Ixxii.   8-1 1.)     As   Solomon   to  the 


1 83  SOLOMONIC   LITER.ATURE. 

Queen,  so  Jesus  gives  proofs  of  astounding  wisdom  to 
the  woman  of  Samaria. 

In  the  "Wisdom  of  Solomon"  the  returned  king  pro- 
ceeds :  "I  was  a  witty  child,  and  had  a  good  spirit. 
Yea  rather,  being  good,  I  came  into  a  body  undefiled" 
(viii.  19,  20).  In  Luke  it  is  said,  "And  the  child  grew, 
and  waxed  strong  in  spirit,  filled  with  wisdom."  "And 
Jesus  increased  in  wisdom  and  stature." 

The  word  "undefiled"  was  a  special  title  of  Wisdom. 
In  the  "Wisdom  of  Solomon"  (vii.)  the  King,  having 
described  his  birth,  "like  to  all,"  and  his  "swaddling 
clothes,"  follows  this  immediately  by  saying,  "I  prayed, 
and  understanding  was  given  me;  I  called,  and  the 
spirit  of  Wisdom  came  to  me."  This  is  the  new  and 
the  spiritual  birth.  Among  the  titles  ascribed  in  the 
same  chapter  to  Wisdom  is  "Undefiled,"  this  being 
emphasized  three  verses  lower  by  the  declaration  that 
being  a  pure  emanation  from  God  "no  defiled  thing  can 
fall  into  her."  These  ideas,  so  far  as  Solomon  is  con- 
cerned, are  referable  to  his  prayer  for  wisdom  ( i  Kings 
iii.  9)  and  to  Jahveh's  adoption  of  him  (Psalm  ii.  7). 
"Thou  art  my  son,  this  day  have  I  begotten  thee." 

These  ideas  all  reappear  at  the  baptism  of  Jesus,  as 
related  in  the  "Gospel  according  to  Hebrews" : 

"Behold  the  mother  of  the  Lord  and  his  brethren  said  to 
him,  'John  the  Baptist  baptizeth  for  remission  of  sins :  let 
us  go  and  be  baptized  by  him.'  But  he  said  to  them,  'Wherein 
have  I  sinned  that  I  should  go  and  be  baptized  by  him?  except 
perchance  this  very  thing  that  I  have  said  is  ignorance.'  And 
when  the  people  had  been  baptized  Jesus  also  came  and  was 
baptized  by  John.  And  as  he  went  up  the  heavens  were 
opened,  and  he  saw  the  Holy  Spirit  in  shape  of  a  Dove  descend' 
ing  and  entering  him.  And  a  voice  out  of  heaven,  saying, 
'Thou  art  my  beloved  Son,  in   thee   I   am  well  pleased' ;   and 


SOLOMON  AND   JESUS.  183 

again,  'I  have  this  day  begotten  thee.'  "  (Cf.  Jahveh's  promise 
concerning  Solomon,  i  Chron.  xvii.  13,  "I  will  be  his  father 
and  he  shall  be  my  son.") 

It  is  important  to  recall  that  this  all  occurred  before 
baptism.  The  suggestion  that  he  should  be  baptized  for 
remission  of  sins,  is  met  by  Jesus  as  a  challenge  of  his 
sinlessness.  It  is  submitted  to  the  test,  and  before  he 
enters  the  water  the  "Undcfiled"  (the  dove)  enters  him, 
and  the  deity  announces  him  as  then  and  there  begotten. 
When  "straightway  a  great  light  shone  around  the 
place" — ultimately  the  Star  of  Bethlehem.  John  the 
Baptist  is  here  the  shepherd :  seeing  the  light,  he  asks, 
"Who  art  thou,  Lord?"  The  heavenly  voice  replies, 
"This  is  my  beloved  Son,  in  whom  I  am  well  pleased." 
Then  John  fell  down  before  him  and  said,  "I  pray  thee, 
Lord,  baptize  thou  me."  But  he  prevented  him,  saying, 
"Let  be ;  for  thus  it  is  becoming  that  all  things  should 
be  fulfilled."  Then  follows  the  baptism,  and  the  ac- 
count continues : 

"And  it  came  to  pass,  when  the  Lord  had  come  up  from  the 
water,  the  entire  fountain  of  the  Holy  Spirit  descended  and 
rested  upon  him  and  said  to  him,  'My  Son,  in  all  the  prophets 
did  I  await  thee,  that  thou  mightest  come  and  I  might  rest 
in  thee ;  for  thou  art  my  rest ;  thou  art  my  first-born  Son  that 
reignest  forever.'  "* 

The  phrase  "entire  fountain  of  the  Holy  Spirit"  is 
Parsi.  Anahita  is  the  Holy  Spirit ;  her  influence  is 
always  describedas  a  fountain  descending  on  the  saints 
or  heroes  to  whom  she  gives  strength.  It  will  be  re- 
membered that  in  this  Gospel  the  Holy  Spirit  is  also 
feminine.  The  use  of  the  words  "fountain"  and  "rest 
in  thee"  are  interesting  in  connection  with  the  account 
of  John  the  Baptizer  and  Jesus  in  the  fourth  gospel, 

*  Nicholson's  "  Gospel  According  to  the  Hebrews,"  pp.  36-43. 


184  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

which  dififers  so  widely  from  the  Synoptical  narratives. 
It  is  in  John  (iii.)  left  doubtful  whether  Jesus  accepted 
any  baptismal  rite  at  all.  John  was  baptizing  at  a  large 
pool  called  ^non-by-Saleim, — probably  allegorical, 
meaning  "Fountain  of  Repose."  Jesus  and  his  friends 
came  there  and  plunged  in  {ilSanri'^uvro)  ,  but  they 
seem  to  have  been  a  distinct  party  from  that  of  John. 

After  the  supposed  resurrection  of  Jesus  everything 
he  did,  even  taking  a  bath,  became  mystical.  Jerome 
says  that  in  his  time  there  was  a  place  called  Salumias, 
and  he  maintained  that  it  was  there  that  Melchizedek 
refreshed  Abraham.  There  are  various  readings  of 
this  Saleim  in  the  New  Testament,  all,  no  doubt,  vari- 
ants of  Solomon,  all  meaning  "rest" ;  and  the  fourth 
Gospel  supplies  in  ^Ahibv  iyyo<;  laXfjii'  the  basis  of  the 
legend  in  the  Aramaic  Gospel  of  the  "rest"  which  the 
Holy  Spirit  found  in  her  son,  on  whom  her  "entire 
fountain"  was  poured.  And  with  this  legend  may  also 
be  read  the  words  of  "Wisdom  of  Solomon,"  vii.  27, 
28:  "She  (Wisdom)  maketh  all  things  new;  and  in  all 
ages  entering  into  holy  souls  she  maketh  them  friends 
of  God  and  prophets.  For  God  loveth  none  but  him 
that  dwelleth  with  Wisdom."  The  representation  in 
this  Aramaic  Gospel  of  the  Holy  Spirit  as  "entering 
into"  Jesus  is  especially  interesting  in  connection  with 
the  use  of  the  same  phrase  in  "Wisdom  of  Solomon," 
— into  whose  heart  Wisdom  was  put  by  God  ( i  Kings 
X.  24). 

It  is  only  after  Wisdom  has  entered  into  Jesus  that 
the  voice  is  heard,  "This  is  my  beloved  Son,  in  thee  I 
am  well  pleased."  This  accords  with  Solomon's  words, 
"God  loveth  none  but  him  that  dwelleth  with  Wisdom." 
The  angelic  song  at  the  birth  (Luke  ii.  14)  preserves 


SOLOMON  AND   JESUS.  1 85 

the  heavenly  voice  at  the  baptism  concerning  "peace." 
The  "peace"  is  Solomon's  own  name,  associated  with 
the  "rest"  given  to  his  reign  in  order  that  he  might 
build  the  temple  (i  Kings  v.  4,  Ecclcsiasticus  xlvii.  13). 
"My  Son,"  says  the  spirit  from  within  Jesus,  "Thou  art 
my  rest." 

It  is  remarkable  that  the  title  preeminently  belonging 
to  Solomon,  "Prince  of  Peace,"  and  unknown  to  the 
Gospels  as  a  title  of  Jesus,  should  be  traditionally  given 
to  one  said  to  have  declared  that  he  had  come  on  earth 
to  bring  not  peace  but  a  sword,  and  bids  his  disciples 
arm  themselves.  No  doubt  the  religious  instinct  tells 
true  in  this ;  it  is  tolerably  plain  that  the  warlike  words 
were  ascribed  to  Jesus  not  because  he  said  them,  but 
to  adapt  him  to  the  "Word"  as  described  in  the  "Wis- 
dom of  Solomon" :  "While  all  things  were  in  quiet 
silence.  .  .  .  thine  Almighty  Word  leaped  down  from 
heaven  out  of  thy  royal  throne  as  a  fierce  man  of  war 
.  .  .  and  brought  thine  unfeigned  commandment  as  a 
sharp  sword,"  etc.  The  fierce  metaphor  was,  as  we 
have  seen,  caught  up  and  spiritualized  in  the  Epistle  to 
the  Hebrews,  and  passed  on  to  be  literalized  for  the 
risen  Christ,  so  that  the  consecration  of  the  sword  by 
the  Prince  of  Peace  is  writ  large  in  the  Christian  wars 
of  many  centuries. 

To  the  tests  and  proofs  of  Solomon's  wisdom  re- 
corded in  I  Kings  iii.  and  x.  many  additions  were  made 
by  rabbinical  tradition,  mostly  derived  from  Parsi  scrip- 
tures. The  famous  Ring  of  Solomon  is  the  symbol  of 
sovereignty  over  the  part  of  the  earth  owned  by  God 
given  by  him  to  the  first  man  King  Yima — "Then  T, 
Ahura  Mazda,  brought  two  implements  unto  him,  a 
golden  ring  and  a  poniard  inlaid  with  gold.     Behold, 


l86  SOLOMONIC   LITERATURE. 

here  Yima  bears  the  ro3'al  sway!"  (Vendidad,  Farg. 
ii.  5).  When  Yima  pressed  the  earth  with  this  ring, 
the  genius  of  the  Earth,  Aramaiti,  responded  to  his  wish 
and  order.  The  ring  represented  Yima's  "glory"  (in 
Avestan  phrase),  his  divine  potency,  lost  when  he 
yielded  to  a  temptation  of  the  devil,  and  Solomon  also 
lost  his  ring  with  which,  as  we  have  seen  {^ante  IV.) 
his  "glory"  and  royal  sway  passed  to  the  (Persian) 
devil  Asmodeus.  This  occurred  in  a  trial  of  wits, 
Asmodeus  propounding  hard  questions,  which  Solomon 
was  able  to  answer  until,  proudly  thinking  he  could 
answer  by  his  unaided  intellect,  he  laid  aside  his  ring, 
at  the  challenge  of  Asmodeus.  These  hard  questions 
are  found  in  an  ancient  legend  of  a  similar  contest  be- 
tween the  devil  and  Zoroaster,  and  are  alluded  to  as 
"malignant  riddles."  Zoroaster  met  the  devil  "un- 
shaken by  the  hardness  of  his  malignant  riddles,"  and 
swinging  "stones  as  big  as  a  house,"  whicn  he  had 
obtained  from  the  Maker, — tables  of  the  divine  law, 
and  possibly  origin  of  the  stones  which  the  devil  chal- 
lenged Jesus  to  turn  into  bread. 

There  are  Avestan  elements  in  the  legend  of  the  temp- 
tation of  Jesus  that  do  not  appear  in  the  legends  of  Solo- 
mon. In  Parsi  belief  the  land  of  demons  on  earth  is 
Mazana.  From  that  region  they  issue  to  inflict  diseases, 
especially  blindness  and  deafness.  In  that  region  is  an 
"exceeding  high  mountain,"  Damavand,  to  which  the 
great  demon  Azi  Dahaka  was  bound  by  Feridun  who 
overcame  him.  This  demon  was  called  "the  murderer," 
— the  epithet  mysteriously  applied  by  Jesus  to  the  devil 
(John  viii.  44).  After  tempting  and  supplanting  King 
Yima  he  ruled  over  the  world  for  a  millennium  in  gfreat 


SOLOMON  AND   JESUS.  187 

Splendour,  and  the  chief  of  devils  tempts  Zoroaster 
with  that  glory, 

"Renounce  the  good  law  of  the  worshippers  of 
Mazda,  and  thou  shalt  gain  such  a  boon  as  the  Murderer 
gained,  the  ruler  of  nations."  Thus  in  answer  to  him 
said  Zoroaster,  "No,  never  will  I  renounce  the  good 
law  of  the  worshippers  of  Mazda,  though  my  body,  my 
life,  my  soul,  should  burst."  Again  said  the  guileful 
one,  the  Maker  of  the  evil  world,  "By  whose  word  wilt 
thou  strike,  by  whose  word  wilt  thou  repel,  by  whose 
weapon  will  the  good  creatures  (strike  and  repel)  my 
creation?"  Thus,  in  answer,  said  Zoroaster,  "The 
sacred  mortar,  the  sacred  cup,  the  Haoma  [the  sacra- 
mental juice]  the  Words  taught  by  Mazda,  these  are  my 
weapons."* 

After  this,  Zoroaster  "on  the  mountain"  conversed 
with  Ahura  Mazda,  and  invoked  the  beneficent  beings 
who  preside  over  the  seven  Karshvares  of  the  earth. 
We  thus  have  here  the  mountain,  the  stones,  the  Word 
from  the  mouth  of  God,  the  offer  of  the  kingdoms  of  the 
world,  and  the  ministering  angels,  which  reappear  in 
the  temptation  of  Jesus. 

After  his  baptism,  Jesus  repudiates  liis  human  parent- 
age ("who  is  my  mother?"  etc.),  and  was  led  up  by  his 
new  mother — the  Spirit — into  the  wilderness  to  be 
tested  by  the  devil.  To  this  no  doubt  relate  the  words 
of  Jesus  preserved  by  Origen  from  the  "Gospel  accord- 
ing to  the  Hebrews" :  "Just  now  my  mother  the  Holy 
Spirit  took  me  by  one  of  my  hairs  and  bore  me  up  on 
the  great  mountain  Tabor."**     Here  the  Solomonic 

*  Hacred  Books  of  the  East,  Vol.  iv,  p.  206. 

♦*  In  the  apocryphal  hook,  "  licl  and  the  Dragon"  (verse  36),  the  angel 
thus  bore  by  the  hair  i^abakkuk  to  Babylon,  and  set  him  over  the  lion's  den 
where  Daniel  was  confined.    Habakkuk  means  the  "  embrace  of  love." 


1 88  60L0M0NIC  LITERATURE. 

kingdom  and  glory  were  offered  by  the  devil  if  Jesus 
would  worship  him.  According  tO'  Luke  iv.  he  was 
tempted  forty  days  (the  number  of  the  years  of  Solo- 
mon's reign).  The  first  incident  thereafter  was  his 
announcement  that  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  was  upon  him, 
and  the  second  was  an  exhibition  of  his  Solomonic 
power  over  devils.  This,  in  Luke,  is  his  first  miracle. 
His  first  titular  recognition  was  this  surrender  of  the 
devil,  who  cried,  'T  know  thee  who  thou  art,  the  Holy 
One  of  Israel !" 

In  Matthew  also  the  devils  first  give  him  the  divine 
title  "Son  of  God"  (vii.  29).  In  the  next  chapter  he 
gives  his  twelve  disciples  authority  over  demons.  That 
this  was  well  understood  by  the  people  is  shown  in 
Matthew  xii.  23,  where,  on  seeing  demons  mastered, 
they  cry,  "Is  this  the  Son  of  David?"  that  is,  is  this 
Solomon,  the  famous  enslaver  of  demons  ? 

It  may  be  noted  in  passing  that  in  the  three  miracles 
in  Matthew  of  exorcising  a  blinding  demon  the  title 
"Son  of  David"  is  used.  Alford  speaks  of  this  as  re- 
markable ;  but  vision  is  the  especial  promise  of  Wis- 
dom, therefore  of  Solomon,  son  of  David. 

It  may  be  remembered  in  this  connection  that  in 
"Wisdom"  (Ecclus.  iv.)  the  trial  by  Wisdom  is  set 
forth : 

"Whoso  giveth  ear  unto  her  shall  judge  the  nations.  *  *  * 
If  a  man  commit  himself  unto  her,  he  shall  inherit  her. 
*  *  *  At  the  first  she  will  walk  with  him  by  crooked  ways 
and  bring  fear  and  dread  upon  him,  and  torment  him  with  her 
discipline,  until  she  may  trust  his  soul,  and  try  him  by  her 
laws.  Then  she  will  return  the  straight  way  unto  him,  and 
ccmfort  him,  and  shew  him  her  secrets.  But  if  he  go  wrong 
she  will  forsake  him,  and  give  him  over  to  his  own  ruin." 


SOLOMON  AND   JESUS.  1S9 

This,  which  reappears  in  the  parable  of  the  broad  and 
the  narrow  ways,  seems  to  have  determined  the  part 
which  the  Holy  Spirit  performs  in  the  temptation  of 
Jesus.  According  to  Matthew  he  was  by  the  Spirit 
carried  involuntarily,  "driven,"  says  Mark,  the  Hebrew 
Gospel  says,  "borne  by  the  hair"  into  the  wilderness :  as 
Jahveh  "raised  a  Satan  unto  Solomon,"  and  left  Job  to 
Satan,  the  Holy  Spirit  carries  Jesus  to  Satan,  the  same 
Evil  One ;  and  after  his  triumph  the  promise  in  "Wis- 
dom" (she  will  "comfort  him")  is  fulfilled:  "Angels 
came  and  ministered  unto  him."  Luke  says  he  "re- 
turned in  the  power  of  the  Spirit  into  Galilee ;  and  a 
fame  went  out  concerning  him  through  all  the  region 
round  about :  he  taught  in  their  synagogues  and  was 
glorified  of  all." 

Nevertheless  it  may  be  remarked  that  the  peculiar 
language  in  Luke  (iv.  i)  "led  in  the  spirit"  suggests 
that  the  whole  story  is  a  late  literalization  of  some  vis- 
ion, partly  based  on  v.  7  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews, 
but  originally  on  Solomon's  dream  (i  Kings  iii.),  in 
which  Jahveh  offers  him  any  gift,  and  he  asks  only  for 
Wisdom.  Or,  as  he  (Solomon)  says  in  "Wisdom  of 
Solomon,"  "I  preferred  her  before  sceptres  and  thrones" 
(vii.  8).  But  all  of  these  were  remotely  influenced  by 
the  trial  of  Zoroaster,  and  the  attempts  of  the  devil  to 
terrify  Zoroaster  before  tempting  him  may  be  hinted  in 
Mark  i.  13,  "He  was  with  the  wild  beasts."  These, 
however,  are  more  prominent  in  the  temptation  of 
Buddha. 

Paul  appears  to  have  considered  it  an  important 
apostolic  credential  to  have  had  to  contend  with  a  Satan 
(2  Cor.  xii.  7-10),  and  Peter  was  honoured  by  a  special 


190  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

request  made  by  Satan,  and  conceded,  that  he  should 
be  for  a  time  under  his  diaboHcal  control.  (Luke 
xxii.  31.) 

As  in  the  case  of  Solomon,  the  tests  and  trials  of  the 
superhuman  wisdom  and  power  of  Jesus  are  found 
chiefly  in  tradition  and  folklore.  The  apocryphal  gos- 
pels contain  many,  and  some  are  preserved  by  Persian 
and  Arabian  poets.  In  the  New  Testament  a  few 
examples  appear  in  which  his  utterances  are  given 
a  quasi- judicial  tone.  There  are  several  points  of 
resemblance  between  the  famous  judgment  of  Solomon 
on  the  two  harlots  contending  for  the  child,  and  the 
sentence  of  Jesus  in  favour  of  "sinful  Mary,"  sister  of 
Martha,  accused  by  Simon  the  Pharisee.  In  both  cases 
the  decision  was  made  at  a  feast,  and  in  favour  of  the 
one  who  "loved  much."  It  is  not,  however,  the  inci- 
dent in  itself  that  is  now  referred  to,  but  only  the  for- 
mality ascribed  to  it  in  the  narrative.  And  this  adheres 
to  the  entire  story.  The  anointing  of  Jesus  may  have 
occurred,  but  the  scenic  touches  recall  lines  in  the  Solo- 
monic "Song  of  Songs" : 

"While  the  King  sat  at  his  table, 
My  spikenard  sent  forth  its  fragrance." 

It  is  not  impossible,  by  the  way,  that  it  was  from 
chaste  Shulamith  of  the  Song  ascribed  to  Solomon  that 
a  bad  reputation  was  fixed  on  Mary  Magdalene,  against 
whose  virginal  purity  no  word  is  said  in  the  Bible,  the 
chapter  heading  to  Luke  vii.  alone  identifying  her, 
in  contradiction  to  John  xi.  2,  as  the  woman  who 
anointed  Jesus.  This  libel  seems  to  come  from  a  far 
antiquity, — as  far  probably  as  the  Talmudic  "Miriam 
Magdala"  (i.  e.,  Braided-hair  Mary)  ;  and  this  epithet 
might  have  been  derived  from  Shulamith's  "ringlets" 


SOLOMON  AND   JESUS.  191 

which  were  "tied  up  in  folds,"  and  whose  spikenard 
sent  forth  its  odours  while  Solomon  was  at  the  table. 
The  later  Jahvism  must  have  considered  such  attention 
by  ladies  to  their  hair  as  an  evidence  of  wickedness. 
Paul,  while  recognizing-  that  long  hair  is  a  woman's 
"glory"  (i  Cor.  xi.)  dangerously  fascinating  even  to 
the  angels,  testifies  against  "braided  hair"  (i  Tim.  ii.), 
an  instruction  repeated  in  i  Peter  iii.  Whether  this 
lady  of  means  who  helped  to  support  Jesus  was  from 
Magdala  or  not,  it  is  nearly  certain  that  her  legend  was 
derived  from  another  sense  of  "Magdalene,"  and  it  is 
not  improbable  that  the  friendship  of  Jesus  for  her  was 
in  keeping  with  his  Solomonic  defiance  of  the  Pharisaic. 
The  Eastern  tales  of  monarchs  in  disguise,  derived 
from  a  legend  of  Solomon,  may  have  prepared  the 
popular  mind  for  the  double  role  performed  by  Jesus 
in  the  Gospels,  for  the  earlier  writers  do  not  suggest  any 
lowliness  in  his  position  beyond  the  humiliation  of  tak- 
ing on  human  flesh  and  dying.  In  the  Gospels  we  find 
him  now  an  hungered,  now  dining  with  the  Pharisee 
and  anointed  with  precious  ointment,  again  multiplying 
food ;  an  humble  son  of  man  who  has  not  where  to  lay 
his  head,  a  son  of  God  with  legions  of  angels  at  his 
command ;  purifying  the  temple  with  violence,  and 
predicting  its  destruction ;  a  peacemaker  bringing  a 
sword ;  telling  his  disciples  to  resist  not  evil,  and  arm- 
ing them ;  enjoining  secrecy  about  his  miracles,  pres- 
ently parading  them ;  prostrate  with  anguish  in  a 
garden,  presently  shining  with  unmasked  splendour. 
Solomon  never  arrayed  himself  in  any  such  brilliant 
raiment  as  that  of  the  transfiguration,  nor  was  his 
environment  finer  than  the  scenes  imaged  in  some  of 
these  parables, — the  prodigal's  ring  and  robe,  the  king 


192  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

going  to  war  and  sending  his  ambassadors,  the  masters 
of  fields  and  vineyards,  the  momentous  wedding  dress, 
the  importance  of  rank  and  precedence  at  a  feast.  In 
miracles,  too,  we  have  the  grand  wedding  at  Cana,  and 
,the  homage  of  the  centurion  deferentially  rewarded* 

In  the  Hebrew  Gospel  Jesus  says,  "I  will  that  ye  be 
twelve  apostles  for  a  testimony  to  Israel" ;  with  which 
we  may  compare  the  "twelve  officers  over  all  Israel" 
appointed  by  Solomon  (i  Kings  iv.  7).  In  Mark  the 
first  bestowal  on  Jesus  of  his  Solomonic  title  "Son  of 
David"  (x.)  is  immediately  followed  by  his  Solomonic 
entry  into  Jerusalem.  In  Matthew  the  blind  man's 
tribute  is  followed  by  the  cry  of  multitudes,  "Hosanna 
to  the  Son  of  David" ;  and  the  whole  scene  is  obviously 
from  the  narrative  in  i  Kings  i.  of  the  procession  of 
Solomon,  seated  on  David's  mule,  on  the  occasion  of 
the  anointing  which  made  him  the  model  Messiah,  in 
virtue  of  which  he  was  King  and  Priest  in  combination. 
Solomon  dedicated  the  temple  himself,  as  High  Priest, 
and  to  him,  as  King-Priest,  the  privilege  of  sanctuary 
was  subordinate.  Wherefore  he  had  an  offender  exe- 
cuted while  holding  the  horns  of  the  altar.  The  titular 
Son  of  David,  on  the  morrow  of  his  triumphal  entry, 
assumes  authority  in  the  temple,  and  scourges  out  of 
it  the  sellers  of  things  used  in  the  sacrifices, — especially 
Doves.  These  his  human  mother  had  sacrificed  after 
his  birth  for  purification,  but  by  this  time  they  symbol- 
ized his  divine  mother,  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  were  not 
to  be  sold. 

Who  can  suppose  that  this  violence,  which  were  as  if 
oneassaulted  those  who  sell  holy  candles  and  pictures  in 

*  I  observed  in  the  play  at  Oberammergau  that  while  the  disciples  were 
barefoot,  Jesus  wore  fine  white  silk  stockings,  and  was  otherwise  in  richer 
costume. 


SOLOMON  AND   JESUS.  193 

a  church  vestibule,  really  occurred  ?  At  Oberammergau 
the  whole  tragedy  of  the  Passion  Play  hinges  on  the 
resentment  of  these  merchants,  who  appeal  to  the  San- 
hedrim for  protection  from  the  violence  of  one  man 
armed  wi^th  a  whip !  The  story  (John  ii.)  is  an  epitaph 
of  the  primitive  Christ,  the  value  of  whose  blood  was  its 
proof  that  his  victory  over  the  Adversary  was  that  of  a 
Man,  unaided  by  a  divine,  unblemished  by  a  carnal, 
weapon :  triumph  by  either  would  have  been  defeat. 

The  bread  and  wine  offered  to  Abraham  by  the 
mythical  king-priest  of  Salem  (Solomon  disguised  as 
Melchizedek)  may  have  been  suggested  by  the  bread 
and  wine  offered  by  Wisdom  to  her  guests,  in  Proverbs 
ix.  However  this  may  be,  there  is  clearly  discoverable 
at  the  Last  Supper  of  Jesus  the  Satan  that  Jahveh  raised 
up  against  Solomon  in  the  presence  of  mythical  Judas 
("Satan  entered  into  him,"  says  John),  and  in  the 
whole  scene  the  table  of  Wisdom.  "She  hath  mingled 
her  wine,  she  hath  furnished  her  table,"  and  cries — 

"Come,  eat  ye  of  my  bread, 
And  drink  of  the  wine  which  I  have  mingled." 

That  Jesus  supped  with  his  disciples,  at  the  Passover 
time,  is  very  probable,  but  that  the  bread  and  wine  alone 
should  have  been  selected  for  symbolical  usage  (a  point 
unknown  to  the  fourth  gospel)  conforms  too  closely 
with  the  Solomonic  prologue  to  be  a  mere  coincidence. 
The  words  "Take,  eat,"  "Drink  ye  all  of  it,"  recall  also 
the  Song  of  Songs — 

Eat,  O  friends ! 

Drink,  yea  abundantly,  O  beloved ! 


CHAPTER    XVII. 

THE    HEIR    OF    SOLOMON'S    GODHEAD. 

The  anger  of  Jahveh  against  Solomon  (i  Kings  xi.) 
is,  of  course,  the  outcome  of  late  theological  explana- 
tions of  how  the  ancient  and  much  idealised  kingdom 
could  have  been  divided  after  divine  promises  of  its  pro- 
tection. The  interview  with  Solomon  is  a  sort  of 
dramatization,  in  which  the  anachronism  ot  making 
Jahveh  a  historic  contemporary  of  the  Wise  King  repre- 
sents the  fact  that  when  the  tribal  deity  was  evolved  it 
was  in  antagonism  to  a  Solomon  who,  though  his  body 
had  long  mouldered,  was  still  "marching  on."  That 
Solomon  had  to  contend  with  the  hard  and  fanatical 
elements  afterwards  consolidated  in  Jahvism  is  pretty 
clear,  and  we  may  see  in  him  a  primitive  Akbar.  A  cen- 
tury after  Akbar's  death  the  Rajah  of  Joudpoor  said  to 
the  emperor  Aurungzebe :  "Your  ancestor  Akbar, 
whose  throne  is  now  in  heaven,  conducted  the  affairs 
of  his  empire  in  equity  and  security  for  the  period  of 
fifty  years.  He  preserved  every  tribe  of  men  in  repose 
and  happiness,  whether  they  were  followers  of  Jesus 
or  of  Moses,  of  Brahma  or  Mohammed.  Of  whatever 
sect  or  creed  they  might  be,  they  all  equally  enjoyed  his 
countenance  and  favour,  insomuch  that  his  people,  in 
gratitude  for  the  indiscriminate  protection  which  he 
afforded  them,  distinguished  him  by  the  appellation  of 
The  Guardian  of  Mankind."  Moslem  fanaticism 
could  not  tolerate  such  toleration,  and  Akbar's  reign 

194 


THE  HEIR   OF  SOLOMON'S   GODHEAD.      1 95 

was  followed  by  conflicts  very  similar  to  those  which 
followed  Solomon's  reign,  leading  to  the  Mogul  empire, 
but  ultimately  to  the  reign  of  an  "Empress  of  India," 
under  whom  we  now  see  the  same  toleration  of  all  reli- 
gions which  prevailed  in  the  fifty  years  of  Akbar. 

The  Moslem  saw  in  Akbar's  liberality  and  toleration 
the  supreme  offence  of  putting  other  gods — Jesus, 
Brahma,  Ahuramazda — beside  Allah.  The  Jahvist  saw 
retrospectively  in  Solomon's  liberality  the  putting  of 
Moloch,  Ashera,  and  other  gods  beside  Jahveh,  It  was 
therefore  recorded  that  Jahveh  determined  to  rend  all 
the  tribes  save  one  from  Solomon's  son  (a  vaticinlum  ex 
evento).  But  that  one  was  enough  to  preserve  the 
Solomon  cult. 

'A),dyxTj  uudk  0£in  ;id-(i»Tai,  This  Necessity,  which  the 
Greeks  saw  working  above  all  the  gods,  is  man  himself, 
and  worked  also  above  Jah  and  Jahvism,  nay,  by  means 
of  them.  Gradually  they  seemed  to  prevail  over  Solo- 
monism.  The  Proverbs  and  Solomonic  Psalms  were 
transfused  with  Jahvism,  but  by  this  process  the 
heavenly  and  the  terrestrial  kings  were  confused,  and 
the  idea  of  a  human  heir  to  the  throne  of  Jahveh  was 
conceived.  As  when,  in  our  own  era,  Islam  swallowed 
Zoroaster,  with  the  result  of  bringing  forth  the  great 
literary  age  of  Persia,  with  Parsaism  rationalized  under 
a  transparent  veil  of  ]\Ioslem  phrase  and  fable,  so  an- 
ciently arose  the  Hebrew  Faizis  and  Saadis  and  Omar 
Khayyams.  Of  these  was  the  Isaiah  who,  with  pig- 
ments of  the  Solomonic  sunset,  painted  the  sunrise  of  a 
new  day,  and  a  new  earth-born  God. 

"Unto  us  a  child  is  born,  unto  us  a  son  is  given,  and  the 
government  shall  rest  on  his  shoulder:  and  his  name  shall  be 
called   Counsellor   of   Wonders,   God-hero,    Father   of    Spoil, 


196  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

Prince  of  Peace.  Enlarged  shall  be  dominion,  and  without 
cessation  of  peace,  on  the  throne  of  David,  and  throughout  his 
kingdom,  to  establish  it  and  uphold  it  by  justice  and  righteous- 
ness from  henceforth  and  forever." 

Every  title,  every  tint,  in  this  gorgeous  vision  is 
taken  from  the  nuptial  song  for  Solomon  (Ps.  xlv.) 
and  Solomon's  Psalm  (Ixxii.)  The  "delightsomeness 
poured  over  (Solomon's)  lips"  (Ps.  xlv.  2)  makes  the 
Counsellor  of  Wonders;  his  deification  (verses  6,  7) 
makes  the  God-hero ;  the  tributes  of  Tarshish,  and 
Sheba  make  him  father  of  spoil  (Ps.  Ixxii.)  ;  his  "mild- 
ness" (Ps.  xlv.  4)  his  abundant  "peace"  (Ps.  Ixxii.  3, 
7)  make  the  Prince  of  Peace;  and  the  rest  is  a  general 
refrain  for  both  of  the  Psalms. 

Psalm  xlv.  opens  with  the  words,  "My  verse  concerns 
the  King,"  and  there  is  a  fair  consensus  of  the  learned 
that  the  king  is  Solomon.  It  has  been  found  impossible 
to  fix  upon  any  other  monarch  to  whom  the  eulogia 
would  be  applicable,  and  the  resemblance  of  the  theme 
to  the  Song  of  Solomon  proves  that  at  an  early  period 
writers  connected  the  Psalm  with  Solomon  and  one  of 
his  espousals. 

In  quoting  Professor  Newman's  translation  of  this 
Psalm  {_ante  II)  I  alluded  to  my  slight  alterations. 
These  are  few  and  verbal,  but  momentous,  and  were  not 
made  without  consultation  of  many  critical  authorities 
and  versions.  Professor  Newman  was  unable  to  believe 
that  the  poet  really  meant  to  address  Solomon  as  God, 
and  in  verse  6  translates  "Thy  throne  divine,"  in  verse 
7,  "Therefore  hath  God,  thy  God,  etc."  Others,  with 
similar  theistic  bias,  have  shrunk  from  what,  according 
to  the  balance  of  critical  interpretation,  is  the  clear  sense 
of  the  original : 


THE   HEIR   OF  SOLOMON'S   GODHEAD.      197' 

"Thy  throne,  O  God,  ever  and  always  stands ; 
A  righteous  sceptre  is  thy  royal  sceptre : 
Thou  lovcst  right  and  hatest  evil ; 
Therefore,  O  God,  hath  thy  God  anointed  thee 
With  oil  of  joy  above  thy  fellow-kings." 

When  these  verses  were  written — and  verse  1 1,  where 
after  Adonai  the  Vulgate  has  Elohim,  "He  is  tliy  Lord 
God,  worship  thou  him" — the  rigid  Jewish  monotheism 
did  not  exist ;  and  the  apostrophe  might  have  continued 
without  special  notice  had  not  the  psalm  been  included 
in  the  Jewish  hymnology  and  thus  given  the  solemnity 
and  consecration  ascribed  by  Jahvism  to  its  canonical 
Book  of  Psalms.  But  ultimately  it  made  a  tremendous 
and  even  revolutionary  impression ;  and  that  the  verses 
were  interpreted  as  bestowing  the  divine  name  on  Solo- 
mon, by  those  most  jealous  of  that  name,  is  proved,  I 
think,  by  the  following  considerations: 

1.  Isaiah,  in  his  vision  quoted  above  (Is.  ix.)  com- 
bines the  phraseology  of  Ps.  xlv.  with  that  of  Ps.  Ixxii. 
(which  bears  Solomon's  name  as  its  author),  and 
ascribes  to  a  new-born  child  the  title  "God-hero." 

2.  The  recently  discovered  original  of  a  fragment  of 
Ecclesiasticus  includes  the  passage  about  Solomon  in 
xlvii.,  and  it  is  said  in  verse  18:  "Thou  (Solomon) 
wast  called  by  the  glorious  name  which  is  called  over 
Israel."  This  seems  to  be  a  plain  reference  to  the 
ascriptions  in  Ps.  xlv.,  where  alone  the  divine  name  is 
applied  to  any  individual  mortal.  Ecclesiasticus  was 
compiled  early  in  the  second  century  before  our  era, 
and  on  the  basis  of  much  earlier  compilations,  as  its 
prologue  states. 

3.  In  the  "Wisdom  of  Solomon"  the  monarch  is  rep- 
resented as  a  mortal  who  by  the  divine  gift  of  super- 
natural Wisdom  had  gained  immortality;  he  had  be- 


198  SOLOMONIC   LITERATURE. 

come  privy  to  the  mysteries  of  God,  was  his  Beloved, 
his  Son.  This  was  written  about  the  first  year  of  our 
era. 

4.  The  writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  trans- 
lates the  Psalm  xlv.  as  it  is  translated  above,  interpret- 
ing the  words  of  deification  as  meant  for  the  Firstborn 
of  God  at  his  ancient  appearance  on  earth  (i.  6),  and 
applicable  to  his  reappearance  as  Christ ;  arguing  from 
such  language  of  deification  the  superiority  of  the  Son 
of  God  over  the  angels,  who  were  never  so  addressed. 

A  court  poet  addresses  a  princely  bridegroom  as 
Elohlm,  as  a  god — as  it  were,  an  Apollo.  Had  more 
songs  of  like  antiquity  by  poets  of  his  race  been  pre- 
served, no  doubt  other  instances  of  such  rhapsody 
might  be  found,  but  it  happens  that  this  is  the  only 
instance  in  Hebrew  literature  where  an  individual  man 
is  clearly  addressed  as  God  (for  Exod.  vii.  i  and  i  Sam. 
xxviii.  13  are  not  really  exceptions).  As  in  the  Psalm 
that  is  the  only  instance  in  which  an  individual  man 
is,  in  the  Old  Testament,  addressed  as  God,  so  is  its 
application  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  the  only 
indisputable  instance  in  which  an  individual  is 
addressed  as  God  in  the  New  Testament. 

"Thy  throne,  O  God."  Fateful  words!  The  word 
of  God,  says  this  Epistle,  is  sharper  than  any  two-edged 
sword,  but  its  writer  himself  unwittingly  unsheathed 
from  a  courtier's  compliment  just  such  a  sword.  One 
edge  has  slaughtered  innumerable  Jews,  Moslems,  Ari- 
ans,  Socinians,  mingling  their  blood  with  that  of  the 
humane  Jesus  himself  on  the  sacrificial  altar  he  tried  so 
hard  to  exchange  for  mercifulness.  The  other  edge 
turned  against  the  moral  heart  of  Jesus  himself,  low- 
ering the  tone  of  all  narratives  and  utterances  ascribed 


THE   IIEj'R   of  SOLOMON'S   CODIIEAD.      1 99 

to  him  after  his  connection  witli  Jahvcli,  and  conse- 
quently lowcrinj^  all  Christendom  muler  its  dishonoura- 
ble burden  of  accommodating  human  veracity  and  kind- 
ness to  the  bad  heavenly  manners  that  were  acquired 
by  the  deified  Christ.  For  there  was  no  other  God  to 
adopt  him  but  a  particularly  rude  one. 

Theological  scholars  who  have  compared  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews  with  the  Epistles  of  Paul  have  dwelt 
on  the  theological  differences,  but  the  moral  differ- 
ences are  greater.  In  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  the 
emphasis  is  laid  on  the  service  of  Jesus  to  mankind :  it 
is  this  that  makes  him,  as  it  made  Solomon,  worthy  of 
worship  as  a  God,  and  the  ancient  God  with  his  sacri- 
fices is  virtually  represented  as  transforming  himself 
and  his  government  to  the  measure  of  Jesus.  Jesus  is 
complete  and  perfect  man,  no  part  or  power  of  his 
divine  nature  accompanying  him  on  earth.  But  we  see 
in  Philippians  ii.  7,  and  other  passages,  the  primitive 
idea  fading  away,  and  Jesus  pictured  as  a  divine  being 
in  the  mere  semblance  and  disguise  of  a  man,  no  real 
man  at  all ;  a  theory  which  prevails  in  the  story  of  the 
transfiguration,  where  the  disguise  is  for  a  moment 
thrown  aside.  The  earlier  idea  of  his  genuine  humanity 
was  still  strong  enough  to  prevent  any  stories  of  mira- 
cles wrought  by  Jesus  from  arising,  the  resurrection 
being  a  miracle  wrought  by  God  after  the  work  of 
Jesus  was  "finished,"  as  he  is  said  to  have  proclaimed 
from  the  stake.  But  legends  of  miracles  became  inevi- 
table after  the  theory  of  his  disguise  was  diffused,  and 
also  stories  of  the  vituperation,  anathemas,  and  atti- 
tudinizings,  which  are  so  offensive  in  a  man,  but  so 
characteristic  of  the  whole  history  of  Jahveh,  with 
whom  he  was  gradually  identified.    A  gentleman  does 


200  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

not  call  his  opponents  vipers  and  consign  them  to  hell, 
but  Jahveh  is  not  under  any  such  obligations.  And, 
alas,  disregard  of  the  humanities  did  not,  as  we  have 
seen,  stop  there  even  in  Paul's  time.  In  the  further 
development,  that  of  Jesus  the  magician,  the  personal 
character  of  Jesus  was  sadly  sacrificed,  and  it  is  only 
due  to  the  superstition  that  prevents  the  New  Testa- 
ment narratives  from  being  read  in  a  common  sense 
way  that  people  generally  are  not  shocked  by  some  of 
the  representations. 

When  the  second  Solomon  was  born  in  Bethlehem, 
as  the  Gospel  carols  tell,  Wise  Men  came  to  worship 
him,  but  Jahveh  had  already  fixed  his  own  star  above 
the  cradle,  and  his  angels  contended  for  the  great  man, 
as  for  centuries  the  wisdom  of  the  first  Solomon  had 
been  jahvized.  It  was,  however,  the  opinion  of  some 
ancient  commentators  that  the  cry  of  the  angels,  "Glory 
to  God  in  the  highest"  meant  that  the  birth  of  Jesus 
was  to  operate  in  the  heavenly  heights,  and  work 
changes  there  also.  One  may  indeed  dream  of  a  deity 
longing  for  a  human  love, — grieving  at  being  through 
ages  an  object  of  fear,  personified  as  Wrath, — rejoicing 
in  the  birtji  of  any  new  interpreter  who  should  free  him 
from  the  despot  glory,  "I  create  evil,"  and  reconcile 
the  human  heart  to  him  as  eternal  love — love  ever  bur- 
dened with  the  griefs  of  humanity,  ever  seeking  to  be 
born  of  woman,  and  to  struggle  against  the  dark  and 
evil  forces  of  nature.  So  one  may  dream,  and  it  is  a 
pathetic  fact  that  the  contention  between  humanity  and 
heaven  for  the  new-born  Saviour  is  traceable  in  vary- 
ing versions  of  the  Angels'  song.  While  half  of  Chris- 
tendom sing  "On  earth  peace,  good  will  toward  men," 
the  other  half  sing,  "On  earth  peace  to  men  of  good 


THE  HEIR  OF  SOLOMON'S   GODHEAD.      20 1 

will."    Our  Revisers  find  the  balance  of  authorities  on 
the  side  of  authority,  and  translate 

Glory  to  God  in  the  highest, 

And  on  earth  peace  among  men  in  whom  he  is  well  pleased. 

Although  the  "higher  criticism"  appears  to  treat  with 
a  certain  contempt  the  birth-legends  and  carols  in  Mat- 
thew and  Luke,  and  the  genealogies,  beyond  the  letter 
of  these  is  visible  more  of  the  vanishing  Jesus  "after 
the  flesh,"  the  real  and  great  man,  than  of  the  risen 
Christ  in  whom  his  humanity  was  lost.  The  "shepherd 
of  my  people,"  he  who  is  to  absolve  them  from  their 
nightmare  "sins,"  make  crooked  ways  straight,  rough 
places  smooth,  and  free  them  from  fear,  is  remembered 
in  these  rhapsodies  of  the  Infancy,  in  the  terrors  of 
Herod,  and  gifts  of  the  Wise.  They  have  a  certain 
evolution  in  the  benevolent  teachings  and  healing  mira- 
cles of  the  Synoptics,  easily  discriminated  from  the 
competing  Jahveh-Christ.  (Think  of  a  teacher  urging 
his  friends  to  forgive  offenders  seventy  times  seven 
and  then  promising  them  a  "Comforter"  who  will  never 
forgive  the  slightest  offence,  though  merely  verbal, 
either  in  this  world  or  in  the  next!) 

The  extent  to  which  the  man  was  lowered  and  lost 
in  the  risen  Lord  is  especially  revealed  in  the  fourth 
Gospel.  Except  for  the  story  of  the  woman  taken  in 
adultery,  admittedly  interpolated  from  another  Gospel, 
the  fourth  Gospel  may  be  regarded  as  perhaps  the  only 
book  in  the  Bible  without  recognition  of  humanity. 
"I  pray  not  for  the  world,  but  for  those  whom  thou 
hast  given  me,"  is  the  keynote.  In  this  work  there  is 
no  text  for  the  reformer  and  the  philanthropist,  unless 
perhaps  the  retreat  of  Jesus  from  a  prospect  of  lieing 
made  king.    What  inferences  of  benevolence  migiit  be 


203  SOLOMONIC   LITERATURE. 

made  even  from  the  miracles  related  have  to  be  strained 
through  the  arrogance,  self-aggrandizement,  attitudi- 
nizing, as  of  a  showman,  with  which  they  are  wrought.* 
A  rudeness  to  his  mother  precedes  the  turning  of  water 
to  wine  (ii.  4)  ;  the  nobleman's  son  is  healed  because 
the  aristocrat  will  not  believe  without  a  miracle  (iv. 
48)  ;  the  infirm  man  at  Bethesda  is  healed  only  after 
a  sham  question,  "Wouldest  thou  be  made  whole?"  and 
threatened  afterwards  (v.  6,  14)  ;  feeding  the  multi- 
tude is  attended  with  another  sham  question  (vi.  5), 
and  a  parade  of  the  fragments  (13)  ;  the  man  born 
blind  is  declared  to  have  been  so  born  solely  for  the 
sign  and  wonder  manifested  in  his  cure  (ix.  3). 

But  the  supremacy  of  a  new  Jahveh  over  all  moral 
obligations  and  aU  truthfulness  is  especially  displayed 
in  the  resurrection  of  Lazarus  (xi.).  Here  Jesus  is 
represented  as  staying  away  from  the  sick  man,  in  order 
that  he  may  die ;  he  afifects  to  believe  Lazarus  is 
only  asleep,  but  finding  his  disciples  pleased  with  the 
prospect  of  recovery,  in  which  case  there  would  be  no 
miracle,  he  becomes  frank  {-afifiriaw)  and  assures 
them  Lazarus  is  dead ;  he  tells  his  disciples  privately 
he  is  glad  Lazarus  is  dead ;  he  tells  Martha,  when  she 
comes  out  to  him  alone,  that  her  brother  shall  rise ;  but 
when  her  sister  Mary  comes  out,  accompanied  by  her 
Jewish  consolers,  Jesus  breaks  out  into  vehement  groans 
and  lamentations,  lashing  himself  [irdpa.^ev  iaurd-^) 
into  this  sham  grief  over  a  man  at  whose  death  he  has 
connived  and  who  would  presently  be  alive !  Even  in 
his  prayer  over  Lazarus  the  pretence  is  kept  up,  and 

*0n  a  very  ancient  sarcophagus  in  the  Museo  Gregoriano,  Rome,  is 
represented  in  bas-relief  the  raising  of  Lazarus.  Christ  appears  beardless 
and  equipped  with  a  wand  in  the  received  guise  of  a  necromancer,  while  the 
corpse  of  Lazarus  is  swathed  in  bandages  exactly  as  an  Egyptian  mummy. — 
King's  Gnoslics,  p.  145. 


THE  HEIR   OF  SOLOMON'S   GODHEAD.      203 

his  Father  is  informed,  in  an  aside,  "I  know  that  thou 
hcarest  me  always,  but  because  of  the  multitude  around 
I  said  it,  that  they  may  believe  that  thou  didst  send 
me."  Thus  does  the  fourth  Gospel  sink  Jesus  morally 
into  the  grave  of  Lazarus,  leaving  in  his  place  an  em- 
bodiment of  the  Jahveh  who  had  lying  spirits  to  send 
out  into  his  prophets  on  occasion. 

The  resurrection  of  Lazarus  is  a  transparent  fabrica- 
tion out  of  the  parable  of  the  rich  man  and  Lazarus. 
Abraham's  words  to  the  rich  man, — "neither  will  they 
be  persuaded  if  one  rose  from  the  dead," — were  not 
adapted  to  a  faith  built  on  a  resurrection,  so  that  par- 
able is  suppressed  in  the  fourth  Gospel,  The  resurrec- 
tion of  a  supernatural  man  is  not  quite  sufficient  for 
people  not  supernatural.  Those  who  had  been  looking 
for  a  returning  Christ  had  died,  just  like  the  unbeliev- 
ers. There  was  a  tremendous  necessity  for  an  exam- 
ple of  the  resurrection  of  an  ordinary  man.  Shocking 
as  are  the  immoral  details  of  the  story,  there  is  audible 
in  it  the  pathetic  cry  of  the  sufifering  human  heart,  and 
the  demand  that  must  be  met  by  any  Gospel  claiming 
the  faith  of  humanity.  "Lord,  if  thou  hadst  been  here 
my  brother  had  not  died !"  Through  what  ages  has 
that  declaration,  not  to  be  denied,  ascended  to  cold  and 
cruel  skies?  It  is  found  in  the  Vedas,  in  Job,  in  the 
Psalms.  If  there  is  a  Heart  up  there  why  are  we  tor- 
tured? To  the  many  apologies  and  explanations  and 
pretences  which  imperilled  systems  had  given,  Chris- 
tianity had  to  support  itself  by  something  more  than 
Egyptian  dreams  and  Platonic  speculations.  A  dead 
man  must  arise ;  it  must  be  done  dramatically,  amid 
domestic  grief  and  neighbourly  sympathy ;  it  must  be 
done  doctrinally,  with  funeral  sermon  turned  to  rejoic- 


204  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

ings.  And  this  was  all  done  in  the  story  of  Lazarus 
in  such  a  way  that  it  might  surround  every  grave  with 
illusions  for  centuries.  For  who,  while  tears  are  fall- 
ing, will  pause  to  handle  the  wreaths,  and  find  whether 
they  are  genuine  ?  Who,  while  the  service  is  proceed- 
ing, will  analyze  the  details,  and  ask  whether  it  is  possi- 
ble that  the  good  Jesus  could  have  practiced  such  decep- 
tion and  assumed  such  theatrical  attitudes?* 

The  indifference  of  the  fourth  Gospel  to  such  moral 
considerations  as  those  found  in  the  Synoptics  is  so 
apostolic  that  I  am  inclined  to  place  much  of  it 
nearer  to  the  first  century  than  I  once  supposed. 
Paul's  rage  against  the  "wisdom  of  this  world," 
and  his  fulminations  against  the  learned  because  they 
are  not  "called,"  are  fully  adopted  by  the  Johannine 
Christ,  who  says  to  the  blind  man  whose  eyes  he  had 
opened,  and  who  was  worshipping  him:  "For  judg- 
ment came  I  into  this  world,  that  they  that  see  not 
may  see,  and  they  that  see  may  become  blind." 
And  these  ideas  are  represented  in  a  legend  related  in 
the  book  of  Acts  which  is  really  allegorical,  though  our 
translators  have  manipulated  it  into  serious  history. 

A  persecutor  of  Christians,  on  whom  the  spirit  "came 
mightily,"  as  on  King  Saul,  so  that  he  was  a  new  "Saul 
among  the  prophets,"  sought  to  convert  to  his  new 
faith  a  Roman  Proconsul,  Sergius  Paul.  But  with  this 
Consul  was  a  learned  man  of  the  Jewish  Wisdom 
School,  Bar- Jesus  Elymas, — i.  e.,  Dr.  Anti-Jesus  Wise 
Man.    Like  Michael  and  Satan  contending  for  the  body 

*  Renan  suggested  that  Jesus  and  his  friends  at  Bethany  arranged  a  pre- 
tended death  and  resurrection  of  Lazarus.  This  seems  inconsistent  with 
the  absence  of  any  allusion  to  it  or  to  Lazarus  in  the  Epistles,  and  also 
witli  the  evident  relation"  of  the  narrative  to  Ihc- paral^le.  It  looks  more  as 
if  tlie  paralile  of  Lazarus  and  the  rich  man  had  been  dramatized  and  the 
return  of  Lazarus  from  "Abraham's  bosom''  added.  At  every  step  in  the 
narrative(  John  xi.)  there  is  a  suggestion  of  some  old  "mystery-play"  fos- 
silized into  prosaic  literalism. 


THE  HEIR   OF  SOLOMON'S   GODHEAD.      205 

of  Moses,  Prophet  Saul  and  Anti-Jesus  Wise  Man 
contended  for  the  Roman  Paul's  soul.  Prophet  Saul 
prevailed  by  calling  Anti-Jesus  Wise  Man  a  child  of 
the  devil,  and  striking  him  blind.  Thereupon  Consul 
Paul  believed,  being  "astonished  at  the  teaching  of  the 
Lord."  Whereupon  Prophet  Saul  triumphantly  carries 
off  the  Roman's  name  as  a  trophy.* 

Beginning  in  this  conclusive  way,  by  striking  human 
Wisdom  sightless  ("that  they  that  see  may  become 
blind,"  John  ix.  39),  the  Anti-Wisdom  propaganda, 
which  began  with  identifying  Wisdom  with  tiic  serpent 
in  Eden,  passed  on  to  inspire  the  Church  Fathers  who 
gloated  over  the  eternal  tortures  of  the  poets  and  phi- 
losophers of  Greece  and  Rome.  Alas  for  the  philoso- 
phers not  in  their  graves,  but  in  their  cradles,  or  in  the 
womb  of  the  future !  For  torments  are  nearest  "eter- 
nal" when  they  begin  at  once  on  earth. 

One  may  readily  understand  how  it  was  that  per- 
sonal traditions  of  Jesus  and  his  teachings  remained 
unwritten  until  his  contemporaries  were  dead  (although 
this  may  not  have  been  the  case  with  the  suppressed 
"Gospel  according  to  the  Hebrews")  ;  the  hourly  ex- 
pected return  of  Christ  rendered  such  memoirs  unim- 
portant until  it  became  clear  that  the  expectation  was 
erroneous.  The  age  of  John,  of  whom  Jesus  was 
rumoured  to  have  predicted  survival  till  his  return 

*Thi5  is  the  prenuine  sense  of  the  story  in  Acts  xiii.  There  is  no  evi- 
dence in  Paul's  writings  that  he  ever  l^ore  the  name  of  Saul.  Bar-Jesus  has  a 
double  meaning,— "  Son  of  Jesus"  and  "Obstruction  of  Jesus."  The  anti- 
thesis may  have  been  siigpestcd  by  the  words  of  Pilate,  in  nianv  ancient  ver- 
sions of  Matt,  xxvii.  16,  17:  "Whether  of  the  twain  will  ye  that  I  release 
unto  you?  Jesus  Par  Abbas,  or  Jesus  that  is  calkd  the  Christ ?"  Elymas, 
commonly  used  as  a  proper  name,  means  Wise  Man.  The  word  imyoi  de- 
notes Wise  Men  in  M.Ttt.  ii.  i,  where  they  bring  gifts  to  the  infant  Christ,  but 
the  same  word  is  made  by  translators  to  denote  a  "sorcerer"  when  the  wise 
man  is  opposing  Paul!  Nobody  named  Sergius  Paulus  wns  known  before  the 
Consul  of  A n.gt,  who  must  have  been  long  enough  dead  for  this  legend  to 
form  before  it  was  written. 


2o6  SOLOMONIC   LITERATURE. 

(John  xxi.  22),  was  stretched  out  to  a  mythical  extent; 
he  became  an  undying  sleeper  at  Ephesus,  and  finally 
a  pious  "Wandering  Jew" ;  but  when  at  length  such 
fables  lost  their  strength,  some  imaginative  imperson- 
ator brought  forth  an  apocalyptic  bequest  of  John  post- 
poning the  second  advent  a  thousand  years.  The  con- 
venticles had  thus  no  resource  but  to  turn  into  ortho- 
doxy the  heresy  of  Hymenceus  and  Alexander,  for 
which  Paul  delivered  them  over  to  Satan,  that  the  resur- 
rection occurs  at  death;  to  collect  the  traditional  say- 
ings of  Jesus ;  and  to  adapt  these  to  the  new  situation. 
A  thousand  years  later,  when  the  expected  catastrophe 
did  not  occur,  the  substantial  churches  and  cathedrals 
were  built,  as  the  Gospels  had  been  built  after  the  first- 
century  disappointment. 

These  Gospels  contain  things  from  which  some  of  the 
real  teachings  of  the  wise  man  of  Nazareth  may  be 
fairly  conjectured.  That  the  synoptical  records  are 
palimpsests,  though  denied  by  the  prudent,  is  a  truth 
felt  by  the  unsophisticated  who,  in  their  use  of  such 
words  as  "Christian"  and  "a  Christian  spirit,"  quite 
ignore  the  fearful  anathemas  and  damnatory  language 
ascribed  to  Jesus. 


CHAPTER    XVIII. 

THE    LAST   SOLOMON. 

Every  race  has  a  pride  in  its  great  men  which  ulti- 
mately prevails  over  any  pious  taboo  imposed  on  them 
in  life  or  by  tradition.  Some  years  ago  it  was  an- 
nounced that  a  German  scholar  was  about  to  publish 
proofs  that  Jesus  was  not  of  the  Hebrew  race,  and  while 
Christendom  showed  little  concern,  all  Israel  sat  upon 
that  German  almost  furiously.  It  is  an  old  story.  Ban- 
ished Buddha  becomes  an  avatar  of  Vishnu,  and  his 
image  now  appears  in  India  beside  Jagenath.  For  the 
heresiarch  must  be  adapted  before  adoption.  So  Solo- 
mon returns  as  a  preacher  of  orthodox  Jahvism,  in  the 
"Wisdom  of  Solomon,"  but  so  rigid  had  been  the  taboo 
in  his  case  that  the  writer  did  not  venture  to  insert  the 
name  of  so  famous  a  liberal  and  secularist. 

That  was  about  the  first  year  of  our  era.  But  pres- 
ently we  hear  al)Out  the  "Son  of  David."  Was  that 
because  of  David  himself?  Interest  in  David  had  so 
receded  that  in  the  "Wisdom  of  Solomon"  the  resusci- 
tated Wise  Man  barely  alludes  (once)  to  his  "father's 
seat."  Was  it  because  of  any  popular  interest  in  the 
legendary  throne  or  house  of  David?  That  old  "cov- 
enant" is  not  alluded  to  by  the  resuscitated  monarch, 
and  in  the  apostolic  writings  nothing  is  said  about  it. 
In  the  Gospels  the  title  "Son  of  David"  is  generally 
connected  with  certain  alleged  miracles  of  Jesus,  which 
recalled  legends  of  Solomon,  and  it  is  only  in  the  ac- 

207 


2o8  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

count  of  the  entry  into  Jerusalem  that  it  carries  any 
connotation  of  royalty  corresponding  to  the  genealo- 
gies afterwards  elaborated.  Unless  these  narratives  are 
accepted  as  historical  they  must  be  regarded  as  phe- 
nomena, and,  taken  in  connection  with  what  may  be 
reasonably  regarded  as  genuine  teachings  of  Jesus,  the 
phenomena  point  to  a  probability  that  he  had  reawak- 
ened interest  in  the  Wise  Man's  teachings,  and  that  this 
interest,  by  a  compromise  with  Jahvist  prejudices, 
coined  the  expression  "Son  of  David"  as  an  alias  of 
Solomon. 

However  this  may  be,  it  appears  certain  that  there 
was  in  the  teachings  of  Jesus  some  substantial  recov- 
ery of  the  ancient  and  unconverted  Solomon,  the  pro- 
verbial philosopher,  the  man  of  the  world.  How  much 
Jesus  may  have  said  to  revive  interest  in  Solomon,  and 
how  many  of  his  secular  utterances  have  been  hidden 
in  the  grave  of  his  humanity,  can  only  be  conjectured ; 
but  there  are  two  direct  sayings  concerning  Solomon 
ascribed  to  him  which  may  be  regarded  as  the  only  un- 
reserved tributes  to  the  Wise  Man  that  had  ever  been 
uttered  since  his  idealization  in  Chronicles.  And  our 
own  Protestant  Jahvism  has  tried  so  hard  to  manipulate 
these  tributes  into  partial  disparagements  that  we  may 
easily  imagine  early  Christian  Jahvism  destroying  sim- 
ilar testimonies  altogether. 

A.  S.  V.  Luke  xi.  31  :  "The  Queen  of  the  South  shall 
rise  up  in  judgment  with  the  men  of  this  generation 
and  condemn  them :  for  she  came  from  the  uttermost 
parts  of  the  earth  to  hear  the  wisdom  of  Solomon,  and 
behold  a  greater  than  Solomon  is  here." 

True  rendering:  "The  Queen  of  the  South  shall 
stand  in  the  judgment  with  the  men  of  this   [Abra- 


THE  LAST  SOLOMON.  2og 

haniic]  brood,  and  condemn  them  ;  for  she  came  from 
the  farthest  parts  of  the  earth  to  hear  the  wisdom  of 
Solomon,  and  behold  something  more  than  Solomon  is 

here."  (rrAefc^  I'o^.o/jLUJvtx;  w5z  ) 

The  word  mistranslated  "greater,"  nXehv,  is  neuter 
and  cannot  be  applied  to  a  man.  Jesus  is  not  speaking 
of  himself,  but  of  the  new  Spirit  animating  a  whole 
movement. 

The  word  "generation"  as  a  translation  of  y^via 
is,  in  this  connection,  misleading.  No  one  English 
word  can  convey  the  satire  on  people  who  regarded 
themselves  as  holy  by  generation  from  Abraham  (cf. 
Luke  iii.  8),  which  is  in  the  vein  of  Carlyle's  ridicule 
of  English  "Paper  Nobility."  Above  these  self-satis- 
fied claimants  of  inherited  wisdom  Jesus  sets  the  Gen- 
tile Queen  journeying  to  sit  at  the  feet  of  Solomon. 
At  the  feet  of  Solomon  Jesus  also  was  sitting,  and  he 
certainly  did  not  call  himself  personally  greater  than 
Solomon. 

The  other  allusion  to  Solomon  (Matt.  vi.  28,  29)  is 
rendered  thus :  "Consider  the  lilies  of  the  field,  how 
they  grow :  they  toil  not,  neither  do  they  spin ;  and  yet 
I  say  unto  you  that  even  Solomon  in  all  his  glory  was 
not  arrayed  like  one  of  these." 

Here  "glory,"  which  when  applied  to  a  man  has  a 
connotation  of  pride  and  pomp,  is  made  to  translate 
<^<K7/,  which  means  honour  in  its  best  sense,  as  pre- 
served in  "doxology."  Jesus  really  says,  "Solomon 
amid  all  his  honours  never  arrayed  himself  {-spce/3'iXeri)) 
like  one  of  these."  The  greatest  and  wisest  of  men 
did  not  affect  display  in  dress.* 

*"  Boast  not  of  thy  clothing  aiu!  raiment,  and  exalt  not  thyself  in  the 
day  of  honor:  for  the  works  of  the  Lord  (hi  iiiitiire)  are  wonderful,  and  his 
works  amoiift  iwse)  men  are  hidden."— Ecclus.  xi.  4;  cf.,  in  same,  xvi.  26-27, 
where  it  is  said  the  heantiful  things  in  nature  "  ncitlier  labor,  nor  arc  weary' 
nor  cease  from  their  works." 


2IO  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

The  apparent  slightness  of  these  EngHsh  changes 
reveals  their  deliberate  subtlety.  Puritanism,  taking  its 
cue  from  King  James's  translators,  has  bettered  the 
instruction,  and  steadily  pictured  Jesus  pointing  to  a 
lily, — white  emblem  of  purity, — and  censuring  (impli- 
citly) the  ostentation  of  Solomon.  Even  in  rational- 
istic hymn-books  is  found  the  pretty  hymn  of  Agnes 
Strickland,  beginning: 

"Fair  lilies  of  Jerusalem, 

Ye  wear  the  same  array 
As  when  imperial  Judah's  stem 

Maintained  its  regal  sway : 
By  sacred  Jordan's  desert  tide 

As  bright  ye  blossom  on 
As  when  your  simple  charms  outvied 

The  pride  of  Solomon." 

Very  sweet !  But  the  "lilies  of  the  field"  in  Palestine 
are  not  "fair,"  their  charms  are  not  "simple" ;  they  are 
large  and  gorgeous  combinations  of  red  and  gold ;  and 
Solomon,  so  far  from  being  proud  in  the  contrast,  "out- 
vied" in  simplicity  the  pride  of  the  lily. 

Jesus  may  not  indeed  have  said  these  things  concern- 
ing Solomon,  but  the  probability  that  he  did  say  some- 
thing O'f  the  kind  is  suggested  by  the  adroit  mistransla- 
tions. The  same  puritanical  spirit,  the  same  prejudice 
against  human  wisdom  and  love  of  beauty,  prevailed 
even  more  when  the  Gospels  were  written.  The  Jah- 
vist  jealousy  of  the  wisdom  of  the  world  which  in  a 
Targum  added  to  Jeremiah  ix.  23  a  fling  at  Solomon, — 
"Let  not  Solomon  the  Son  of  David,  the  Wise  Man, 
glory  in  his  Wisdom,' — screamed  on  in  Christian  an- 
athemas on  science,  and  laudations  of  the  silly.  (For 
"silly"  is  of  pious  derivation,  from  German  selig — 
blessed.)     Solomon  had  not  been  named  in  any  canon- 


THE   LAST  SOLOI^rON.  211 

ical  scripture  for  centuries,  and  even  in  apocryphal 
"Wisdom"  (Ecclesiasticus)  he  appears  as  if  a  brilliant 
but  fallen  Lucifer.  The  cult  of  Solomon  continued  no 
doubt,  in  a  sense,  among  the  Sadducees  (respectfully 
treated,  by  the  way,  by  Jesus),  but  they  were  com- 
paratively few,  and  like  the  rationalists  of  the  English 
Church,  cautious  about  outside  heresies.  It  was  prob- 
ably characteristic  that  their  name  is  derived  from  Sol- 
omon's priest,  Zadok,  instead  of  from  Solomon  himself. 
As  for  the  Gentile  Queen,  she  is  not  named  in  the  Bible 
after  the  record  of  her  visit  to  Solomon  until  the  homage 
of  Jesus  was  given  her.  It  appears,  therefore,  very 
unlikely  that  such  homage  and  the  unqualified  tributes 
to  Solomon,  would  have  been  put  into  the  mouth  of 
Jesus. 

But  why,  it  may  be  asked,  were  not  these  tributes 
suppressed?  There  is  in  one  case  a  recognition  of  a 
Gentile  lady  which  would  recommend  the  text  to  the 
writer  of  Luke,  and  in  the  other  a  lesson  against  lux- 
ury which  would  recommend  this  to  all  believers.  At 
any  rate,  whatever  may  have  been  the  suppressions, 
and  no  doubt  there  were  many,  two  of  the  Gospels 
have  preserved  these  sentences,  which,  so  far  as  the 
glorious  "idolator"  is  concerned,  neither  of  them  would 
have  invented.  There  are  the  words ;  somebody  uttered 
them ;  and  the  question  arises,  who  was  that  daring 
man  who  broke  the  severe  silence  or  reservations  of 
centuries  and  did  honour  to  the  king  who  built  shrines 
to  gods  and  goddesses  ?* 

♦  Ewald  compares  the  omission  of  the  name  of  Moses  for  so  many  cen- 
turies with  the  omission  of  Solomon's  name.  (Ge^chichte  drs  Volkef  Israel, 
Bk.  ii.).  Such  omissions  do  not,  he  says,  cast  doubt  on  the  historic  character 
of  either.  Tlie  descriptive  references  to  Solomon  durinsj  the  time  when  his 
name  is  suppressed  are  more  continuous,  and  more  liistorical.  The  utter- 
ance of  Solomon's  name  w:\8  probably  at  first  avoi(ied  tlirouRh  Tahvist  hor- 
ror of  his  supposed   idolatry  and  worldliness,  but  as  lie  was  addressed  in 


212  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

As  Solomon  said,  "A  man  is  proved  by  what  he 
praises."  That  Jesus  did  appreciate  the  greatness  of 
the  Solomonic  literature  is  not  a  matter  of  conjecture. 
The  sayings  ascribed  to  him  in  the  Gospels — apart  from 
Pauline  importations  and  quotations  from  Jahvist  scrip- 
tures— are  largely  pervaded  by  the  spirit  and  even  by 
the  phraseology  of  the  Solomonic  books.  Remember- 
ing that  the  phrases  "kingdom  of  heaven,"  "kingdom  of 
God,"  are  post-resurrectional,  and  that  Jesus  could  not, 
unless  by  miraculous  foresight,  use  those  phrases  for 
any  external  dominion  connected  with  himself,  there 
is  reason  to  believe  that  his  conception  was  of  a  sway 
of  Wisdom,  and  that  Wisdom  was  to  him  the  Saviour, 
as  to  Jesus  Ben  Sira,  her  realm  "within,"  her  leaven  hid 
in  the  world,  her  advance  without  observation. 
\  Of  course  those  who  read  the  Bible  in  the  light  of  a 
supernatural  theory,  see  these  things  very  differently, 
but  considering  the  records  as  if  they  were  those  of 
uninspired  people,  one  may  say  that  some  of  the 
sayings  ascribed  to  Jesus  are,  in  their  present  form, 
meaningless.  For  example,  what  should  we  think  if 
we  found  an  ancient  record  of  some  poor  Egyptian  re- 
ported as  saying,  "Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labour 
and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest.  Take 
my  yoke  upon  you,  and  learn  of  me ;  for  I  am  meek 
and  lowly  of  heart :  and  ye  shall  find  rest  unto  your 
souls.  For  my  yoke  is  easy  and  my  burden  is  light." 
How  incongruous  the  "I  am  meek"  with  "learn  of  me" ! 
How  could  he  give  the  heavy  laden  rest?  And  what 
rest  ?  what  yoke  ?  But  we  would  surely  feel  enlightened 
should  we  presently  discover  an  Egyptian  book  of  "Wis- 

a  psalm  as  "God,"  and  as  superstitions  about  his  demon-commanding 
power  grew,  it  seems  not  improbable  that  there  was  some  fear  of  using 
his  name,  akin  to  the  fear  of  uttering  the  proper  name  of  God  or  of  any  evil 
power. 


THE  LAST  SOLOMON.  213 

dom,"  with  proof  of  its  popularity  when  the  mysterious 
words  were  orally  repeated,  containing  such  language 
as  this  from  personified  Wisdom :  "Come  unto  me,  all 
ye  that  be  desirous  of  me,  and  fill  yourselves  with  my 
fruits,"  And  if  we  found  in  the  same  book  a  teacher 
saying:  "I  directed  my  soul  unto  Wisdom,  and  I  found 
her  in  pureness.  .  .  Draw  near  unto  me,  ye  unlearned, 
and  dwell  in  the  house  of  Wisdom.  .  .  Buy  her  for 
yourselves  without  money.  Put  your  neck  under  her 
yoke,  and  let  your  life  receive  instruction :  she  is  near 
at  hand  to  find.  Behold  with  your  eyes  that  I  have 
had  but  little  labour,  and  have  gotten  unto  me  much 
rest." 

Here  is  sense.  These  are  the  words  of  Wisdom  in 
Jesus  Ben  Sira  (Ecclesiasticus  xxiv.  19,  li.  23-27).  Can 
any  unbiased  mind  fail  to  recognize  in  Matthew  xi. 
28-30  a  mangled  quotation  from  this  Hebrew  book  of 
the  second  century,  before  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  bom, 
but  in  his  time  cherished  in  many  Jewish  households 
as  much  as  any  Gospel  is  cherished  in  Christian  house- 
holds? 

Consider  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  In  the  Proverbs 
ascribed  to  Solomon  is  found  the  beatitude  pronounced 
by  Jesus  on  the  lowly,  no  doul)t  literally  quoted  by  him  : 
"With  the  lowly  is  wisdom"  (Prov.  xi.  2).  The  bless- 
ing of  those  who  hunger  for  righteousness  (justice) 
is  in  Prov.  x.  24,  where  it  is  said  their  desire 
shall  be  granted.  The  blessing  of  the  peacemakers  is 
joy  (Prov.  xii.  20).  The  merciful  man  doeth  good  to 
his  own  life  (Prov.  xi.  17).  The  pure  in  heart  shall 
have  the  King  for  his  friend  (Prov.  xxii.  11).  The 
house  that  stands  and  the  house  overthrown  (Prov. 
X.  25  ;  xii.  7 ;  xiv.  11);  the  two  ways  (Prov.  xii.  28,  xiv. 


214  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

12,  xvi.  17)  ;  the  tree  known  by  its  fruits  (Prov.  xi. 
30,  xii.  12)  ;  give  and  it  shall  be  given  you  (Prov. 
xxii.  9)  ;  the  sower  (Prov.  xi.  18,  24,  25)  ;  taking  the 
lower  place  so  as  to  be  placed  higher  and  not  moved 
down  (Prov.  xxv.  6-8)  ;  searching  for  and  buying  Wis- 
dom as  the  precious  silver,  the  pearl,  the  treasure  (Prov. 
vi.  II,  12,  17,  19,  35;  XX.  15;  xxiii.  23)  ;  the  prodigal 
(Prov.  xxix.  3)  ;  those  who  wrong  parents  (Prov.  xx. 
20;  xxviii.  24;  cf.  Matt.  xv.  5;  Mark  vii.  11).  The 
lamps  of  the  wise  and  foolish  virgins  are  found  in 
Prov.  xiii.  9 ;  also  xxiv.  20. 

In  Proverbs  xx.  9,  we  have  the  words,  "Who  can 
say,  'I  have  made  my  heart  clean,  I  am  pure  from  sin  ?'  " 
In  Ecclesiastes  iii.  16,  it  is  said,  "Moreover,  I  saw  under 
the  sun,  in  the  place  of  judgment,  that  wickedness  was 
there ;  and  in  the  place  of  righteousness  that  wicked- 
ness was  there."  (Cf.  also  vii.  20.)  In  the  "Gospel 
according  to  the  Hebrews"  Jesus,  declaring  that  an 
offender  should  be  forgiven  seventy  times  seven,  adds : 
"For  in  the  prophets  likewise,  after  they  were  anointed 
by  the  Holy  Spirit,  utterance  of  sin  was  found." 

Although  in  the  language  ascribed  to  Jesus  in  the 
fourth  Gospel  (iii.  i-io)  there  are  post-resurrectional 
phrases,  whatever  he  may  have  said  about  birth  and 
about  the  wind-like  spirit  seems  to  have  been  what  he 
expected  Nicodemus,  as  a  teacher  in  Israel,  to  under- 
stand. We  may  therefore  suppose  that  it  was  substan- 
tially a  quotation  from  Ecclesiastes  xi.  5 :  "As  thou 
knowest  not  the  way  of  the  wind,  nor  the  growth  of  the 
bones  in  the  mother's  womb,  even  so  thou  canst  not 
fathom  the  work  of  God,  who  compasseth  all  things." 

In  relation  to  Woman  Jesus  seems  to  have  appealed 


THE  LAST  SOLOMON.  215 

to  Solomon  against  Ecclesiastes,  where  (vii.  25-29)  it 
is  said : 

I  have  turned  my  heart  to  know, 

And  to  explore,  and   search  out  wisdom  and  the   reason  of 

things; 
And  to  know  that  wickedness  is  Folly,  and  Folly  madness : 
And  I  have  found  what  is  more  bitter  than  death — 
The  Woman  who  is  a  snare,  her  heart  nets,  her  hands  chains : 
lie  who  pleases  God  shall  be  delivered  from  her, 
But  the  offender  shall  be  captured  by  her. 

See,  this  have  I  found  (saith  the  Speaker). 
Adding  one  to  another,  to  find  out  the  account, 
Which  I  am  still  searching  after,  but  have  not  found — 
One  man  in  a  thousand  I  have  found, 
But  a  woman  among  all  these  I  have  not  found. 
Look  you,  only  this  have  I  found — 
That  God  made  man  upright, 
But  they  have  sought  out  many  devices. 

In  the  first  seven  Hnes  of  this  passage  we  may  recog- 
nize the  personification  in  Proverbs  ix.  13-18.  The 
Woman  of  the  fifth  line  is  "Dame  Folly" ;  but  the  last 
eight  lines  relate  to  womankind.  The  assurance  in  the 
eighth  line  that  it  is  Kohelcth  who  speaks  raises  a  sus- 
picion that  the  last  eight  lines  are  commentary, — a  sus- 
picion further  confirmed  by  the  awkwardness  of  the 
writing.  Strictly  read,  it  is  left  uncertain  whether  no 
woman  is  ever  captured  by  Dame  Folly,  or  not  one 
escapes.  However,  as  commentators  are  generally  men, 
the  interpretation  has  been  adverse  to  woman. 

But  Jesus,  perhaps  remembering  that  Wisdom  is  as 
much  a  woman  as  Folly,  is  reported  (Matthew  xi.  19) 
to  have  said :  "Wisdom  is  justified  by  her  works."  In 
Luke  vii.  35  it  is,  "Wisdom  is  justified  of  all  her  chil- 
dren."   Both  of  these  readings  appeal  to  the  Solomonic 


2l6  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

portrait  of  the  virtuous  woman,  in  Proverbs  xxxi.  the 
last  line  of  which  says,  "Let  her  works  praise  her,"  and 
verse  28,  "her  children  rise  up  and  call  her  blessed." 

In  Luke  the  sentence  is  a  verse  by  itself,  and  the  word 
"all"  renders  it  probable  that  the  sentiment  has  a  bear- 
ing on  the  story  that  follows  of  the  anointing  of  Jesus 
by  a  sinful  woman.*  Some  such  incident  may  have 
occurred,  but  the  address  to  Simon  the  Pharisee  making 
him  to  be  the  offender,  and  the  woman  one  delivered 
from  Dame  Folly  by  her  faith  ("pleasing  God")  looks 
like  a  criticism  on  the  "fling"  at  woman  in  Ecclesiastes, 
with  a  proverb  taken  for  text.  This  rebuke  of  the 
Pharisee,  who  thought  "the  prophet"  ought  to  abhor 
the  "sinner,"  immediately  precedes  an  account  of  the 
eminent  women  who  supported  Jesus  by  their  means, — 
Mary,  called  Magdalene ;  Joanna,  the  wife  of  Herod's 
steward ;  Susanna,  "and  many  others."  They  "minis- 
tered to  him  of  their  substance,"  and  possibly  the  Phari- 
see and  others  might  naturally  suspect  him  of  being 
among  "the  ensnared."  The  fact  is  strange  enough  to 
be  genuine,  and  Luke  thinks  it  important  to  say  that 
Jesus  had  healed  these  ladies  of  bad  spirits  and  infirmi- 
ties. Of  course  it  is  necessary  to  divest  Gospel  anec- 
dotes of  much  post-resurrectional  vesture,  and  in  this 
case  it  cannot  be  credited  that  Jesus  said  that  the 
woman's  sins  were  "many,"  which  he  could  not  have 
known,  or  that  he  gave  her  formal  absolution. 

The  indications  of  the  study  of  Ecclesiasticus  by  Jesus 
are  very  remarkable.  This  book  appears  to  have  been 
a  sort  of  nursery  in  which  proverbs  were  trained  for 
their  fruitage  in  the  last  Solomon's  religious  testimo- 

*  It  is  shocking  to  find  this  woman  named  as  Mary  Magdalene  in  the 
"  Harmony  of  the  Gospels,"  appended  to  the  Revised  Bible.  'J  his  deliberate 
falsehood  is  carefully  elaborated  by  separating  the  story  as  told  in  Matthew 
and  Mark  as  another  incident,  under  tne  heading,  "Mary  anoints  Jesus." 


THE  LAST  SOLOMON.  21 7 

nies.  What  those  testimonies  were  we  cannot  easily 
gather,  but  it  is  useful  for  comparative  study  to  remark 
the  sentences  in  Ecclesiasticus  which  correspond,  either 
in  thought  or  phraseology,  with  those  ascribed  to  Jesus. 
The  broad  and  the  narrow  ways  barely  suggested  in 
"Proverbs"  are  here  developed  (Ecclesiasticus  iv.  17, 
18).  "Hide  not  thy  wisdom"  (iv.  23,  xx.  30).  "Say 
not,  'I  have  enough  (goods)  for  my  life'  "  (v.  i,  xi.  24). 
"Extol  not  thyself"  (vi.  2).  We  find  the  exhortation  to 
judge  not  (vii.  6)  ;  rebuke  of  much  speaking  in  prayer 
(14)  ;  warning  against  the  lustful  gaze  (ix.  5,  8)  ;  the 
night  cometh  when  no  man  can  work  (xiv.  16-19;  cf. 
Eccles.  ix.  10) ;  the  proud  cast  down,  the  humble  ex- 
alted (x.  14,  xi.  5)  ;  one  only  is  good  (xviii.  2)  ;  swear 
not  (xxiii.9)  ;  forgiven  as  we  forgive  (xxviii.  2)  ;  treas- 
ure rusting  and  treasure  laid  up  according  to  the  com- 
mandments of  the  Most  High  (xxix.  10,  11)  ;  "Judge 
of  thy  neighbor  by  thyself"  (xxxi.  15)  ;  the  altar-gift 
and  the  wronged  brother  (xxxiv.  18-20)  ;  he  that  seeks 
the  law  shall  be  filled  (xxxii.  15) ;  charity  and  not  sac- 
rifice (xxxv.  2). 

These  resemblances,  of  which  more  might  be  quoted, 
between  teachings  ascribed  to  Jesus  and  passages  in 
the  Wisdom  Books,  are  so  important  that  by  the  aid 
of  these  books  some  of  the  confused  utterances  attrib- 
uted to  him  may  be  made  clear.*  Apart  from  the 
importations  of  Paul,  and  one  or  two  from  the  epistle 
to  the  Hebrews,  no  reference  by  the  Jesus  of  the  Gos- 

*In  the  newly-found  tablet  to  which  English  editors  give  the  title  "  Logia 
Jesou,"  the  c,th  "  Logion,"  so  far  as  it  can  be  made  out,  reads:  "... 
saitli  where  there  are  .  .  .  and  there  is  one  alone  .  .  .  I  am  with  him. 
Raise  the  stone  and  there  thou  shalt  find  me,  cleave  the  wood  and  there 
am  I."  The  last  sentence  seems  to  be  based  on  Kccles.  x.  9:  "Whoso  re- 
moveth  stones  siiall  be  liurt  therewith;  and  he  that  cleaveth  wood  shall  be 
endangered  thereby."  The  first  sentence  may  be  an  allusion  to  the  poor 
man  who  alone  saved  the  city  (Eccles.  ix.).  Tiiere  is  no  such  wordas  "Jesus" 
in  this  "  Logion,"  and  perhaps  it  is  Wisdom  who  speaks. 


2l8  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

pels  to  Jahvist  books  can  be  shown  of  similar  sig- 
nificance. Combined  as  his  Solomonic  ideas  are  with 
his  homage  to  Solomon  and  the  Gentile  Queen,  and 
followed,  as  we  shall  see,  by  a  resuscitation  of  Solo- 
monic legends  in  connection  with  him,  it  appears  clear 
that  Jesus  was  of  the  Solomonic  and  anti- Jahvist  school. 

It  would,  however,  be  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that 
Jesus  was  simply  a  philosophical  and  ethical  teacher. 
He  cannot  be  so  explained.  The  fragmentary  sayings, 
so  far  as  discoverable  amid  their  post-resurrectional 
perversions,  have  the  air  of  obiter  dicta  from  a  man  en- 
gaged in  a  local  propaganda  of  subversive  principles. 
What  the  propaganda  really  was  is  but  dimly  discern- 
ible under  its  own  subsequent  subversion  by  his  ghost, 
but  there  are  a  few  sayings  not  traceable  to  his  prede- 
cessors, and  beyond  the  capacity  of  his  contemporaries 
or  his  successors,  which  bring  us  near  to  an  individual 
mind,  and  suggest  the  general  nature  of  the  agitation 
he  caused. 

The  story  of  the  woman  taken  in  adultery,  known 
to  have  been  in  the  suppressed  "Gospel  according  to  the 
Hebrews,"  and  by  some  strange  chance  preserved  in 
the  fourth  gospel  (viii),  I  believe  to  have  really  oc- 
curred. It  would  have  required  a  first-century  Boc- 
cacio  to  invent  such  a  story,  and  I  cannot  discover  any- 
thing similar  in  Eastern  or  in  Oriental  books,  Augus- 
tine says  that  some  had  removed  it  from  their  manu- 
scripts, 'T  imagine,  out  of  fear  that  impunity  of  sin  was 
granted  to  their  wives."  It  is  not  likely  that  any  of 
the  earlier  fathers,  any  more  than  the  later,  would  have 
invented  so  dangerous  a  story. 

Another  anecdote,  preserved  only  in  the  fourth  Gos- 
pel, probably  contains  some  elements  of  truth,  namely, 


THE  LAST  SOLOMON.  2 19 

the  words  uttered  to  the  Samaritan  woman.  Who 
would  have  been  bold  enough,  even  had  he  been  liberal 
enough,  to  invent  the  words :  "Neither  in  this  moun- 
tain, nor  in  Jerusalem,  shall  ye  worship  the  Father"? 
Even  in  the  one  Gospel  that  ventures  to  preserve  it  this 
noble  catholicity  is  immediately  retracted  (John  iv.  22) 
in  a  verse  which  obviously  interrupts  the  idea.  That 
the  story  is  an  early  cue  is  also  suggested  by  the  fact 
that  no  reproach  to  the  woman  on  account  of  her  many 
husbands  is  inserted.  It  is  remarkable  to  find  such  a 
story  related  without  any  word  about  sin  and  forgive- 
ness. 

The  so-called  "Sermon  on  the  Mount"  is  well  named : 
it  is  evidently  made  up  of  reports  of  sermons  in  ampli- 
fication of  sayings  of  Jesus  in  the  style  of  the  Wisdom 
Books,  among  which  probably  were : 

Let  your  light  shine  before  men.    A  lamp  is  not  lit  to  be 

put  under  a  bushel." 

"The  lamp  of  the  body  is  the  eye.     If  thine  eye  be  sound 

the  whole  body  is  illumined ;  if  the  eye  be  diseased  the  whole 

body  is  in  darkness.     If  the  inner  eye  be  darkened  how  great 

is  the  darkness." 

"Sufficient  unto  the  day  is  the  evil  thereof." 

"By  their  fruits  both  trees  and  man  are  known." 

"Each  tree  is  known  by  its  omn  fruit." 

"Put  not  new  wine  into  old  wine-skins,  lest  they  burst." 

"Be  wise  as  serpents  and  harmless  as  doves." 

"Wisdom  is  justified  by  her  children." 

"If  any  man  will  be  great,  let  him  serve." 

"The  lowly  shall  be  exalted,  the  proud  humbled." 

"Blind  guides  stram  out  the  gnat,  and  swallow  a  camel." 

"Give  and  it  shall  be  given  you." 

"The  measure  ye  mete  shall  be  measured  to  you." 

"Cast  the  beam  from  thine  eye  before  noticing  the  mote  in 

that  of  thy  neighbour." 


220  SOLOMONIC   LITERATURE. 

The  following  sentences  in  the  "Gospel  according  to 
the  Hebrews"  do  not  appear  to  have  been  very  seri- 
ously influenced  by  post-resurrectional  ideas. 

"He  is  a  great  criminal  who  hath  grieved  the  spirit  of  his 
brother." 

"No  thank  to  you  if  you  love  them  that  love  you,  but  there 
is  thank  if  ye  love  your  enemies  and  them  that  hate  you." 
(Cf.  Prov.  xxix.  17,  29.) 

"Be  ye  never  joyful  save  when  you  have  looked  upon  your 
brother  in  charity." 

"Be  as  lambkins  in  midst  of  wolves." 

"The  son  and  the  daughter  shall  inherit  alike." 

"It  is  happy  rather  to  give  than  to  receive." 

"No  servant  can  serve  two  masters." 

"Out  of  entire  heart  and  out  of  entire  mind." 

"What  is  the  profit  if  a  man  gain  the  entire  world,  and  lose 
his  life?" 

"Seek  from  little  to  wax  great,  and  not  from  greater  to 
become  less." 

"Become  proved  bankers." 

"If  ye  have  not  been  faithful  in  the  little  who  will  give  you 
the  great?" 

These  instructions  have  no  connotations  of  the  end 
of  the  world.  They  appear  like  the  words  of  a  man 
of  the  world,  but  not  a  man  of  the  people.  There  is 
a  certain  unity  in  them,  indicating  a  mind  more  devel- 
oped than  the  semi-Jahvist  Alexandrian  philosophers 
of  the  later  Wisdom  cult,  as  represented  by  Jesus  Ben 
Sira's  "Wisdom,"  and  by  the  "Wisdom  of  Solomon" ; 
also  a  mind  more  practical. 

But  these  wise  sayings  do  not  convey  the  full  idea 
of  a  man  whose  execution  the  Sanhedrim  would  require, 
nor  a  man  whose  resurrection  from  the  grave  would 
be  looked  for  by  the  populace.  These  two  phenomenal 
facts  imply  some  strong  antagonism  to  the  priesthood 
and  their  system.    Martyrdoms  do  not  occur  for  ethical 


THE   LAST  SOLOMON.  321 

generalizations,  much  less  for  philosophical  affirma- 
tions. The  faith  that  strikes  deep  is  that  which  speaks 
in  great  denials. 

Trying  to  follow  his  advice  to  "Become  proved  bank- 
ers," we  may  detect  in  some  probable  sayings  of  Jesus 
a  transitional  ring,  e.  g.,  "The  Sabbath  was  made  for 
man,  and  not  man  for  the  Sabbath."  The  effort  at 
self-emancipation  is  still  more  traceable  in  certain  inci- 
dents related  in  the  "Gospel  according  to  the  Hebrews"  : 

"He  saith,  'If  thy  brother  hath  offended  in  anything  and  hath 
made  thee  amends,  seven  times  in  a  day  receive  him.'  Simon 
his  disciple  said  unto  him,  'Seven  times  in  a  day?'  The  Lord 
answered  and  said  unto  him,  'I  tell  thee  also  unto  seventy 
times  seven ;  for  in  the  prophets  likewise,  after  that  they  were 
anointed  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  utterance  of  sin  was  found.'  " 

"The  same  day,  having  beheld  a  man  working  on  the  Sab- 
bath, he  said  to  him,  'Man,  if  thou  knowest  what  thou  dost, 
blessed  art  thou :  but  if  thou  knowest  not,  thou  art  under  a 
curse,  and  a  law-breaker.'  " 

That  a  man  should  regard  the  Holy  Spirit  as  unable 
to  make  men  infallible ;  that  he  should  have  discovered 
immoral  utterances  in  the  prophets ;  that  he  should  re- 
gard it  as  a  sign  of  enlightenment  to  disregard  the  Sab- 
bath deliberately  and  intelligently — this  is  surely  all 
very  striking. 

Who,  in  the  second  century,  could  have  invented 
these  anecdotes  about  Jesus?  They  are  not  harmoni- 
ous with  the  Pauline  Epistles  ;  their  heretical  character 
is  proved  by  the  repudiation  of  the  Gospel  containing 
them,  while  their  genuineness  is  implicitly  confessed 
by  the  ultimate  suppression  of  that  Gospel.  For  surely 
it  cannot  be  supposed  that  such  a  work,  well  known  in 
the  fifth  century,  was  lost ;  nor  is  there  much  doul)t 
that  any  learned  rationalist,  if  permitted  the  free  range 


223  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

of  all  the  libraries  in  Rome,  without  the  presence  of 
polite  librarians,  could  bring  to  light  that  first-century 
Gospel,  the  only  one  written  in  Aramaic,  the  language 
of  Jesus. 

But,  when  we  come  to  consider  the  mature  and  posi- 
tive teachings  of  Jesus,  there  may  be  placed  in  the 
front  a  sentence  preserved  from  the  suppressed  Gospel 
by  Epiphanius,  who  writes  {Haer  xxx.  i6)  :  "And  they 
say  that  he  both  came,  and  (as  their  so-called  Gos- 
pel has  it)  instructed  them  that  he  had  come  to  dis- 
solve the  Sacrifices :  'and  unless  ye  cease  from  sacri- 
ficing the  wrath  shall  not  cease  from  you.' "  Dr. 
Nicholson  is  shocked  at  this  threat,  and  suspects  the 
Ebionites  of  having  altered  what  Jesus  said.  But 
surely  it  is  a  true  and  grand  admonition  by  one  super- 
seding a  phantasm  of  heavenly  Egoism,  demanding 
gifts  from  men  for  pacification,  with  the  idea  of  a 
Father.  Dr.  Nicholson  connects  it,  no  doubt  rightly, 
with  Luke  xiii.  1-3,  which  should  probably  read : 
"There  were  some  present  at  that  very  season  who  told 
him  of  the  Galileans  whose  blood  Pilate  had  mingled 
with  their  sacrifices.  And  he  answered.  Think  ye 
these  Galileans  were  sinners  rather  than  all  other  Gali- 
leans because  they  suffered  these  things?  I  tell  you. 
No!  And  unless  ye  cease  from  sacrificing,  the  Wrath 
will  not  cease  from  you."  That  is,  they  would  always 
be  haunted  by  the  delusion  of  a  bloodthirsty  god,  a 
god  of  Wrath,  and  see  a  judgment,  not  only  in  every 
accident,  but  in  every  calamity  wrought  by  fiendish 
men. 

In  his  quotation  from  Hosea — "I  desire  charity,  and 
not  sacrifice" — Jesus  speaks  as  if  with  a  transitional 
accent,  as  compared  with  the  declaration  that  sacri- 


THE  LAST  SOLOMON.  223 

fices  imply  deified  Wrath.  The  contempt  of  Ecclesi- 
astes  for  "the  sacrifice  of  fools  who  know  not  that 
they  are  doing  evil"  (v.  i),  has  here  become  a  great 
and  far-reaching  affirmation,  which  must  have  im- 
pressed the  orthodox  Jews  as  atheism.  For,  although 
there  are  passages  in  several  psalms  and  in  the  prophets 
which  disparage  sacrifice,  they  were  all  interpreted  by 
the  Rabbins,  as  now  by  Christian  theologians,  as 
meaning  their  purification  and  spiritualization — by  no 
means  their  abolition.  Indeed,  this  higher  interpre- 
tation of  sacrifices  appears  to  have  given  them  fresh 
lease;  and  in  the  time  of  Jesus,  when  to  the  priest- 
hood remained  only  control  over  their  religious  ordi- 
nances, the  sacrifices  were  apparently  preserved  with 
increased  rigour.  Jesus  himself,  unless  the  gospeller 
(Matt.  V.  23,  24)  has  softened  his  language,  had  at 
one  time  only  demanded  that  none  should  offer  a  gift 
at  the  altar  until  he  had  done  justice  to  any  who  had 
aught  against  him.  But  a  remarkable  passage  in  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  (x.  5)  represents  Jesus  as 
going  to  the  world  with  a  quotation  from  Psalm  xl. 
6,  7,  for  a  clause  of  which  a  parenthesis  is  given,  saying : 

"Sacrifice  and  offering  thou  wouldst  not 

(Thou  hast  furnished  me  this  body)  — 

In  whole  burnt  offerings  and  sin  offerings  thou  delighted  not: 

Then  said  I  (in  that  chapter  of  the  book  it  is  written  for  me), 

'Lo,  I  come  to  do  thy  will,  O  God.'  " 

The  sentence  preserved  by  Eusebius,  however,  shows 
that  his  attitude  toward  sacrifices  was  not  merely  to 
"lift"  from  men  (Heb.  x.  9,  wjaipt'i)  the  burden  of 
sacrifice,  but  to  denounce  it  as  an  offering  to  the 
devil.  "Unless  ye  cease  from  sacrificing,  the  Wrath 
shall  not  cease  from  you." 


3  24  SOLOMONIC   LITERATURE, 

In  this  sentence  "the  Wrath"  (^  '^pr"^)  is  clearly  a 
personification.  It  does  not  in  the  same  form  occur  else- 
where in  the  Bible.  Matthew  and  Mark  report  John 
the  Baptist  as  speaking  of  "the  impending-  wrath,"  and 
Paul  occasionally  gives  "Wrath"  a  quasi-personifica- 
tion  (e.  g.,  "children  of  Wrath,"  Eph.  ii.  1-3).  These 
expressions,  and  the  "destroyer"  Abaddon  or  Apollyon, 
of  Revelations  ix.  and  (xii.  12)  the  devil  "in  great 
temper"  (  Ouiibv  ),  all  show  that  the  Jewish  mind  had 
become  familiar  with  the  idea  of  a  dark  and  evil  power 
quite  detached  from  official  relation  to  Jahveh,  no 
longer  "the  wrath  of  God"  executing  divine  judgments, 
but  organized  Violence,  eager  to  afflict  mankind  as  the 
creation  of  his  enemy. 

In  the  "Wisdom  of  Solomon"  (xviii.)  there  is  a  com- 
plete picture  of  the  two  opposing  Destroyers.  The 
divine  destroyer  ("thine  Almighty  Word")  leaps  down 
with  his  sword  and  slays  the  firstborn  of  Egypt;  the 
antagonist  Destroyer  begins  the  same  kind  of  work 
among  the  Israelites  in  Egypt,  but  Moses  by  prayer 
and  the  "propitiation  of  incense"  sets  himself  "against 
the  Wrath"  and  overcomes  him, — "not  with  physical 
strength,  nor  force  of  arms,  but  with  a  word,"  The 
incense  used  by  Moses  to  put  the  demon  to  flight  recalls 
the  "perfume"  used  by  Tobit,  on  the  advice  of  the 
angel,  to  put  to  flight  Asmodeus;  and  Asmodeus  is 
notoriously  the  Persian  Aeshma,  a  name  meaning 
"Wrath,"  who  occupies  so  large  space  in  the  Pars!  scrip- 
tures.*    The  especial  antagonist  of  Aeshma  "of  the 

*  Asmodeus  (identified  as  Aeshma  by  West,  Bundahis  xxv.  15,  n.  10)  has 
(Tobit  vi.  13)  slain  seven  men  who  successively  married  Sara,  whom  he  (and 
Tobit)  loved,  and  in  Bundahis  Aeshma  has  seven  powers  with  vvhich  he  will 
slay  seven  Kayan  heroes.  But  one  is  preserved,  as  Tobit  is.  {Sacred  Books 
of  the  East,  Vol.  V,  p.  108.)  Darniesteter  says:  "One  of  the  lorenn  st 
amongst  the  Drvants  (storm-fiends),  their  leader  in  their  onsets,  is  Aeshma, 
'  the  raving,'  '  a  fiend  with  tlie  wounding  spear.'    Originally  a  mere  epithet  uf 


THE  LAST  SOLOMON.  225 

wounding  spear,"  is  Sraosha,  "the  incarnate  Word,  a 
mighty-speared  god."  (Farvardin  Yast,  85.)  As 
Moses  overcomes  "the  Wrath"  "with  a  word,"  Zo- 
roaster is  given  a  form  of  words  to  conquer  Aeshma 
("Praise  to  Armaiti',  the  propitious!")  and  the  Ven- 
didad  says,  "The  fiend  becomes  weaker  and  weaker  at 
every  one  [repetition]  of  those  words."  The  Zamyad 
Yast  says,  "The  Word  of  falsehood  smites,  but  the  Word 
of  truth  shall  smite  it."  Aeshma  is  the  child  of  Ahri- 
man,  the  Deceiver  of  the  World,  and  a  Pars!  would 
recognize  him  in  the  declaration  ascribed  to  Jesus,  "The 
devil  is  a  liar  and  so  is  his  father."     (John  viii.  44.) 

That  Jesus  regarded  the  whole  realm  of  evil  as  abso- 
lutely antagonistic  to  the  Good  is  reflected  in  the  epistle 
"To  the  Hebrews."  There  his  mission  is  to  abolish  the 
devil  (ii.  14),  which  is  very  different  from  abolishing 
death  (2  Tim.  i.  10).  For  a  long  time  the  devil  was 
suppressed  in  the  "Lord's  Prayer,"  but  in  that  brief 
collection  of  Talmudic  ejaculations  the  only  original 
thing  is,  "Deliver  us  from  the  evil  one."  In  the  Clem- 
entine Homilies  Jesus  is  quoted  as  having  said,  "The 
evil  one  is  the  tempter,"  and  "Give  not  a  pretext  to  the 
evil  one."  Nay,  the  single  clause  preserved  in  Matthew, 
that  it  is  an  enemy  that  sows  tares, — these  being  as 
much  parts  of  nature  as  corn, — is  a  sentence  that  divides 
the  Ahrimanic  creation  from  the  Ahuramazdean  crea- 
tion as  clearly  and  profoundly  as  anything  ascribed  to 
Zoroaster. 

Theological  harmonists  have  for  centuries  been  at 
work  on  the  contrarious  doctrines  of  all  scriptures,  and 
even  among  the  Parsis  some  kind  of  metaphysical  alli- 

the  storm  fiend,  A§shma  was  afterwards  converted  into  an  abstract,  the 
demon  of  rage  and  anger,  and  became  an  expression  for  all  moral  wickedness, 
a  mere  name  of  Ahrinian." 


226  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

ance  has  taken  place  between  the  Kingdoms  of  Good 
and  Evil.  Devout  Christians  find  it  quite  consistent 
that  one  person  of  the  trinity  should  say,  "I  create  good 
and  I  create  evil,"  and  another  person  of  the  trinity 
should  say  of  natural  evil,  "An  enemy  hath  done  this." 
But  no  such  harmony  existed  in  the  Jerusalem  of  Jesus. 
Under  a  'teaching  that  symbolized  the  deity  as  the  Sun, 
shining  alike  on  the  thankful  and  thankless,  individu- 
ally, desiring  no  sacrifices,  and  concentrating  human 
effort  against  the  forces  of  evil  in  nature,  in  society — 
the  evil  principle — Jahveh  falls  like  lightning  from 
heaven.  Like  "the  blameless  man"  of  the  "Wisdom  of 
Solomon,"  Jesus  "sets  himself  against  the  Wrath," 
however  sanctified  as  the  Wrath  of  God,  and  sees  all 
sacrifices  as  eucharists  of  the  Adversary.  He  not 
only  repudiates  the  name  "Jahveh,"  but  tells  the  offi- 
cial agents  of  Jahvism  that  their  god  is  his  devil.  (John 
viii.  44). 

Of  course  one  can  only  refer  cautiously  to  anything 
in  the  fourth  Gospel,  for  it  is  a  composite  book,  but  it 
contains,  as  I  believe,  passages  or  fragments  of  the 
early  apostolic  theology,  wherein  dualism,  until  crushed 
by  Paul,  was  prominent,  and  the  good  God  repre- 
sented in  hard  struggle  with  Satan  for  the  rescue  of 
mankind. 

This  aspect  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  cannot  be  dealt 
with  here  as  its  importance  deserves.  We  live  in  an 
age  whose  clergy  deal  apologetically  with  the  promi- 
nence of  the  Adversary  of  Man  in  the  teachings  of 
Jesus.  For  this  fundamental  principle  of  Jesus  Jewish 
monotheism  has  been  substituted.  But  there  are  many 
records  to  attest  that  the  moral  perfection  and  benevo- 


THE  LAST  SOLOMON,  227 

lence  of  the  deity,  which  is  certainly  inconsistent  with 
his  omnipotence,  or  his  "permission"  of  the  tares  in 
nature,  was  the  only  new  principle  of  religion  affirmed 
by  Jesus ;  and,  also,  that  it  was  so  subversive  of  sacri- 
fices, priesthood,  and  the  very  foundations  of  the  temple 
— all  dependent  on  Jahveh's  menaces — that  the  execu- 
tion of  Jesus  appears  more  rationally  explicable  by  this 
dualistic  propaganda  than  by  any  other  ascribed  to  him. 

It  was  the  birth  of  a  new  God  that  moved  Jerusalem  : 
a  unique  God  in  Judea — and  almost  unknown  in  mod- 
ern Christendom — namely,  a  good  God.  As  the  Ara- 
bian gospel  significantly  relates,  the  Eastern  Wise  I\Ien 
came  to  the  cradle  of  Jesus  as  that  of  a  saviour  "prophe- 
sied by  Zoroaster," — the  one  prophet  who  separated 
deity  from  the  realm  of  evil. 

It  is  now  even  unorthodox  to  deny  that  the  agonies 
of  nature  are  part  of  the  providence  of  God  :  but  herein 
orthodoxy  is  in  direct  antagonism  to  what  it  maintains 
as  the  authentic  teaching  of  Jesus.  "Then  was  brought 
unto  him  one  possessed  of  a  devil,  blind  and  dumb  ;  and 
he  healed  him.  insomuch  that  the  dumb  man  spake  and 
saw.  And  all  the  multitudes  were  amazed  and  said.  Is 
this  the  Son  of  David  ?  But  when  the  Pharisees  heard 
it,  they  said,  This  man  doth  not  cast  out  devils  but  by 
Beelzebub,  the  prince  of  devils.  And  knowing  their 
thoughts  he  said,  Every  dominion  divided  against  itself 
is  brought  to  desolation  ;  and  every  city  or  house  divided 
against  itself  shall  not  stand ;  and  if  Satan  casteth  out 
Satan,  he  is  divided  against  himself :  how  then  shall  his 
dominion  stand?" 

Those  therefore  who  believe  these  to  be  the  words  of 
Jesus,  and  yet  believe  blindness,  dumbness,  and  other 


228  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

physical  diseases  to  be  in  any  sense  of  divine  providence 
or  even  permission,  are  believing  in  a  God  whom  Jesus 
implicitly  pronounced  to  be  Satan. 

And  those  who  do  not  believe  that  Jesus  healed  such 
diseases,  nor  believe  in  a  personal  Satan,  may  still 
regard  the  above  legend  as  characteristic.  The  separa- 
tion of  Good  and  Evil  into  eternally  antagonistic  domin- 
ions could  not  have  been  affirmed  by  any  Jew  other  than 
Jesus  (or  John  the  Baptist,  probably  however  an 
Oriental  dervish.)  Though  the  Jews  popularly  be- 
lieved in  Beelzebub  and  other  devils,  they  were  all 
regarded  as  under  the  omnipotence  and  control  of 
Jahveh,  who  proudly  claimed  that  he  was  the  creator 
of  all  evil,  and  who  even  had  lying  spirits  in  his  employ. 

Whether  Jesus  believed  in  the  personality  of  the  evil 
principle,  in  any  strict  sense,  may  be  questioned.  He 
may  have  meant  no  more  than  Emerson,  who  pictured 
ill  health  as  a  ghoul  preying  on  the  heart  and  life  of  its 
victims.  Memories  of  similar  teachings  may  have 
given  rise  to  the  tales  of  healing  afterwards  associated 
with  Jesus.  But  the  personality  of  evil  is  a  more  philo- 
sophical generalization  than  the  personification  of  a 
power  representing  both  the  good  and  the  evil  phe- 
nomena of  nature.  Evil  acts  in  concrete  forms,  and 
often  in  combinations  of  forces  which  can  not  be 
analysed  and  distributed  into  particular  causes.  History 
records  instances  of  moral  epidemics  driving  whole  peo- 
ples as  if  down  a  steep  place  into  seas  of  blood,  as  if  by 
some  pandemoniac  possession,  impressing  the  ordinarily 
humane  along  with  the  vindictive,  the  lawless  and 
destructive.  A  great  deal  of  crime  seems  disinterested, 
and  still  more  is  due  to  the  fanatical  inspiration  of  cruel 
deities,  whose  names  become  in  other  religions  the 


THE  LAST  SOLOMON.  229 

names  of  devils.  Out  of  manifold  experiences  in  the 
trag-ical  annals  of  mankind  came  the  terrible  Ahriman. 

That  Jesus  did  not  adopt  the  Zoroastrian  theology 
is  shown  in  his  hostility  to  sacrifices  which  are  of  vital 
importance  in  the  Parsi  system,  though  they  were  not 
of  the  cruel  kind ;  nor,  as  we  have  seen,  were  they  to 
propitiate  gods,  but  to  assist  them.  Moreover,  belief  in 
Ahriman  had  naturally  evoked  a  militant  spirit  in  the 
war  against  evil,  and  Jesus  seems  to  have  for  this  rea- 
son separated  himself  from  the  dervish,  John  the  Bap- 
tist, whose  violence  had  landed  him  in  prison.  The 
incident  (Matt,  xi.)  is  so  wrapped  in  post-resurrectional 
phraseology  that  any  rational  interpretation  must  be 
conjectural ;  but  there  is  a  certain  accent  about  it  which 
can  hardly  be  explained  as  part  of  the  evangelical  doc- 
trine that  the  Baptist  was  a  mere  preface  to  Christ. 
Jesus  seems  to  regard  John  the  Baptizer  as  the  ablest 
man  of  his  time  (verse  ii),  but  as  of  a  revolutionary 
spirit,  as  if  the  reformation  were  a  siege  against  some 
political  kingdom  or  throne.  Violent  people  had  been 
pressing  around  John,  and  the  cause  of  spiritual  libera- 
tion had  suffered.  There  was  too  much  of  the  old  law 
with  its  thunders,  too  much  of  fiery  Elijah,  surviving  in 
John.  The  ideal  is  not  a  thing  to  be  clutched  at,  or 
taken  by  force,  but  all  of  the  conditions — every  tittle — 
must  be  fulfilled.    (Luke  xvi.  17.) 

This  is  in  substance  a  doctrine  of  evolution  as  opposed 
to  revolution,  and  my  interpretation  may  be  suspected 
of  rationalistic  anachronism ;  but  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  the  Golden  Age  behind  Israel  was  an  epoch 
of  Peace,  which  was  represented  in  the  ancient  name 
of  their  city  (Salem),  and  of  its  greatest  monarch, 
Solomon.     The  prophets  had  long  been  painting  the 


230  SOLOMONIC   LITERATURE. 

visionary  dawn  with  pigments  of  that  glorious  sunset, 
Solomon,  true  to  his  name,  had  allowed  dismember- 
ment of  his  kingdom  rather  than  go  to  war  against 
rebellion ;  and  it  is  noticeable  that  in  the  apostolic  age 
there  was  a  principle  against  carnal  weapons,  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews  (xii.  3,  4)  especially  reminding  the 
brethren  of  the  patient  endurance  of  Jesus,  and  com- 
mending their  not  having  "resisted  unto  blood."  This 
peacefulness  of  Jesus  had  indeed  become  a  basis  of  the 
doctrine  that  the  triumph  of  Jesus  over  Satan  was  con- 
ditioned on  his  not  using  any  force,  or  other  satanic 
weapon.  Those  who  took  to  the  sword  would  perish 
thereby — i.  e.,  remain  in  sheol. 

But  in  a  realm  of  practically  oppressive  and  cruel 
superstitions,  established  and  consecrated,  an  absolute 
appeal  to  the  moral  sentiment  cannot  escape  being  revo- 
lutionary. The  American  Anti-Slavery  Society  were 
non-resistants ;  their  great  leader,  William  Lloyd  Gar- 
rison, thus  apostrophised  his  "elder  brother"  of  Jeru- 
salem : 

"O  Jesus  !  noblest  of  patriots,  greatest  of  heroes,  most 
glorious  of  all  martyrs  !  Thine  is  the  spirit  of  universal 
liberty  and  love — of  uncompromising  hostility  to  every 
form  of  injustice  and  wrong.  But  not  with  weapons  of 
death  dost  thou  assault  thy  enemies,  that  they  may  be 
vanquished  or  destroyed;  for  thou  dost  not  wrestle 
against  flesh  and  blood,  but  against  'principalities, 
against  powers,  against  the  rulers  of  the  darkness  of 
this  world,  against  spiritual  wickedness  in  high  places' ; 
therefore  hast  thou  put  on  the  whole  armor  of  God, 
having  the  loins  girt  about  with  truth,  and  having  on 
the  breastplate  of  righteousness,  and  thy  feet  shod  with 
the  preparation  of  the  gospel  of  peace,  and  going  forth 


THE  LAST  SOLOMON.  231 

to  battle  with  the  shield  of  faith,  the  helmet  of  salva- 
tion, the  sword  of  the  Spirit !  Worthy  of  imitation  art 
thou,  in  overcoming  the  evil  that  is  in  the  world ;  for  by 
the  shedding  of  thine  own  blood,  but  not  even  the  blood 
of  thy  bitterest  foe,  shalt  thou  at  last  obtain  a  universal 
victory." 

So,  across  the  ages,  does  deep  answer  unto  deep. 
But  all  the  same  Garrison's  feet  were  unconsciously 
shod  with  the  preparation  of  the  gospel  of  war,  even  as 
those  of  Jesus  were.  In  a  realm  of  consecrated  wrong 
every  appeal  to  the  moral  sentiment  is  necessarily  revo- 
lutionary ;  far  more  so  than  physical  rebellion,  against 
which  preponderant  moral  forces  combine  with  the 
immoral,  as  being  a  greater  evil  than  the  orderly  wrong 
assailed.  Satan  cannot  be  cast  out  by  Beelzebub.  A 
god  of  wrath,  enthroned  on  reeking  altars,  could  bet- 
ter stand  the  axe  of  the  Baptist  than  the  sunbeam  of 
Jesus,  the  arrow  feathered  with  gentleness  and  culture. 
John  the  Baptist  was  not  a  religious  martyr ;  he  suf- 
fered from  a  ruler  quite  indifferent  to  his  religion,  with 
whose  personal  affairs  he  had  interfered.  But  Jesus 
suffered  because  he  proclaimed,  with  irresistible  elo- 
quence, a  new  religion,  one  involving  practically  the 
existing  institutions  of  the  priesthood,  and  their  whole 
moral  system.  It  was  virtually  the  setting  up  of  a  new 
deity  in  place  of  Jahveh,  reason  in  place  of  the  Bible, 
the  heart  worshipping  in  spirit  and  in  truth  in  place  of 
the  temple,  and  humanizing  the  moral  sentiment — turn- 
ing the  conventional  morality  to  "dead  works"  (Heb. 
vi.  i).     He  expected  the  reform  to  be  peaceful! 

Rousseau's  remark  that  Socrates  died  like  a  philoso- 
pher, but  Jesus  like  a  god,  has  in  it  a  truth  more  im- 
portant than  those  who  often  quote  it  recognise.    Jesus 


232  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

died,  legendarily,  so  much  like  a  god  that  it  is  difficult 
to  make  out  just  what  happened  to  the  man.  Strong 
arguments  have  been  made  to  prove  that  he  did  not  die 
at  ah  on  "the  cross"  (a  word  unknown  to  the  New 
Testament),*  and  that  Pilate  not  only  "set  himself"  to 
save  Jesus  (John  xix.  12),  but  succeeded.  There  may 
have  been  from  the  stake  a  despairing  cry,  afterwards 
shaped  after  a  line  from  a  psalm,  but  it  can  hardly  be 
determined  whether  this  may  not  have  been  part  of  the 
first  post-resurrectional  doctrine  that  the  Son  must  be 
absolutely  left  by  his  divine  Father,  and  pass  unaided 
through  the  ordeal  of  Satan,  in  order  to  fulfil  the  con- 
ditions of  a  return  from  death.  It  is  true,  however,  that 
this  primitive  idea  had  almost  vanished  when  the  earli- 
est Gospel  was  written,  and,  although  a  relic  of  it  may 
have  been  preserved  by  tradition,  there  is  an  equal  prob- 
ability that  Jesus  did  utter  at  the  stake  a  cry  of  despair. 
The  whole  miserable  murderous  affair,  unforeseen  and 
disappointing,  must  have  appeared  to  him  a  horrible 
display  of  diabolism ;  and  even  after  his  friends  believed 
in  his  resurrection,  and  saw  in  the  tragedy  a  sacrifice, 
they  regarded  it  a  sacrifice  hateful  to  his  Father,  and 
exacted  only  by  the  Devil. 

Did  he  pray,  "Father  forgive  them,  they  know  not 
what  they  do"?  Only  Luke  reports  this;  its  suppres- 
sion by  the  other  Gospels  suggests  that  its  doctrinal 
significance  was  perceived.  I  heard  a  preacher  in  the 
church  of  the  Jesuits  at  Rome  argue  that  Judas  him- 
self is  now  in  Paradise,  because  Jesus  thus  prayed  for 

*  The  word  translated  "cross"  is  araupos,  a  stake.  The  christian  cross 
began  its  development  by  the  carving  of  a  figure  of  Tesus  on  the  stake, 
which  required  a  support  for  the  arms.  Protestantism,  by  removing  the  fig- 
ure, has  lelt  the  wooden  fetish,  which,  however,  has  been  invested  with  Sym- 
bolical meanino;s,  some  derived  from  the  various  crosses  held  sacred  in  many 
countries  long  before  Christ. 


THE  LAST  SOLOMON.  233 

tliose  who  slew  him,  and  the  prayer  of  the  Son  of  God 
must  have  been  answered.  There  is  no  apparent  dog- 
matic purpose  in  this  incident,  and  it  may  be  true. 

The  story  of  his  confiding  his  mother  to  the  disciple 
"whom  he  loved,"  told  only  by  John,  is  evidently  meant 
to  complete  the  assumption  of  a  special  favoritism 
towards  that  disciple,  who  is  the  type  of  the  good  Spirit 
on  one  side  of  Jesus  in  contrast  with  Judas,  Satan's 
agent,  on  the  other.  The  two  are  equally  unhistorical 
and  allegorical.  John  and  Judas  became  the  good  and 
evil  Wandering  Jews  of  mediaeval  folklore. 

The  first  Solomon  had  perished  as  a  teacher  of  wis- 
dom when  he  was  summoned  from  his  tomb  to  utter  the 
Jahvism  of  the  "Wisdom  of  Solomon" :  the  second  and 
last  Solomon  was  forever  buried  on  the  day  when 
Mary  Magdalene  saw  his  apparition,  and  cried,  "My 
master!"  From  that  time  may  be  dated  the  loss  of  the 
man  Jesus,  and  restoration  in  Christ  of  the  Jahvism 
whose  burden  the  wise  teacher  had  endeavored  to  lift 
from  the  heart  and  mind  of  the  people.     Vicisti  Jahveh! 


CHAPTER    XIX. 

POSTSCRIPTA. 

Early  in  the  year  1896  a  company  of  Jews  performed 
at  the  Novelty  Theatre,  London,  in  the  Hebrew  lan- 
guage, a  drama  entitled  "King  Solomon."  It  was  an 
humble  affair,  and  only  about  three  score  in  the  audi- 
ence— I  and  one  very  dear  to  me  being  apparently  the 
only  "Gentiles"  present.  The  drama  was  mainly  the 
legend  of  the  Judgment  of  Solomon  and  that  of  the 
visit  of  the  Queen  of  Sheba,  both  conventionalized,  and 
performed  in  an  automatic  way,  no  spark  of  human 
passion  or  emotion  animating  either  of  the  women 
claiming  the  babe,  or  the  Queen  of  Sheba.  The  part 
of  Solomon  was  acted  by  a  fine-looking  man,  who  went 
through  it  in  the  same  perfunctory  way  that  character- 
ized Joseph  Meyer,  the  Oberammergau  Christ,  as  he 
appears  to  the  undevout  critical  eye.  Such  has  the 
biblical  Solomon  become  in  Europe. 

In  the  same  week  I  attended  a  matinee  of  "Aladdin" 
in  Drury  Lane  Theatre,  which  was  crowded,  mainly 
with  children,  who  were  filled  with  delight  by  the  fairy 
play.  The  leading  figures  were  elaborated  from  Solo- 
monic lore.  A  beautiful  being  in  dazzling  white  rai- 
ment and  crown  appears  to  Aladdin ;  she  is  a  combina- 
tion of  the  Queen  of  Sheba  and  Wisdom ;  she  presents 
the  youth  with  a  ring  (symbol  of  Solomon's  espousal 
with  Wisdom,   or  as  the  Abyssinians  say,  with  the 

234 


POSTSCRIPTA.  235 

Queen  of  Sheba)  ;  by  means  of  this  ring  he  obtains  the 
Wonderful  Lamp  (the  reflected  or  terrestrial  wisdom). 
An  Asmodeus,  well  versed  in  modern  jugglery,  charms 
the  audience  with  his  tricks  and  antics,  before  pro- 
ceeding to  get  hold  of  the  magic  ring  of  Aladdin,  and 
commanding  the  lamp,  which  he  succeeds  in  doing,  as 
he  succeeded  with  Solomon.  This  is  what  legendary 
Solomon  has  become  in  Europe. 

In  European  Folklore,  Solomon  and  his  old  adver- 
sary, Asmodeus,  now  better  known  as  Mephistopheles, 
have  long  been  blended.  Solomon's  seal  was  the 
mediaeval  talisman  to  which  the  demon  eagerly  responds. 
The  Wisdom  involved  is  all  a  matter  of  magic.  It  is 
wonderful  that  so  little  recognition  has  been  given  in 
literature  to  the  epical  dignity  and  beauty  of  the  bibli- 
cal legends  of  Solomon.  In  early  English  literature 
there  was  at  one  time  a  tendency  to  ascribe  to  Solomon 
various  proverbs  not  in  the  Bible.  In  one  old  manu- 
script he  is  credited  with  saying : 

"Save  a  thief  from  the  gallows  and  he'll  help  to  hang  thee." 

Also, 

"Many  a  one  leads  a  hungry  life, 
And  yet  must  needs  wed  a  wife." 

In  Chaucer's  "Melibaeus"  there  are  ten  proverbs 
ascribed  to  Solomon  which  are  not  in  the  Bible.  But 
generally  it  is  Solomon  the  magician  who  has  interested 
the  poets.  In  the  old  work,  "Salomon  and  Saturn,"  the 
wise  man  informs  Saturn  that  the  most  potent  of  all 
talismans  is  the  Bible  : 

"Golden  is  the  Word  of  God, 
Stored  with  gems ; 
It  hath  silver  leaves ; 


236  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

Each  one  can, 
Through  spiritual  grace 
A  Gospel  relate." 

And  it  is  further  said,  "Each  (leaf)  will  subdue 
devils."  In  a  profounder  vein  Solomon  says  :  "All 
Evil  is  from  Fate ;  yet  a  wise-minded  man  may  moder- 
ate every  fate  with  self-help,  help  of  friends,  and  the 
divine  spirit." 

In  Prospero  burying  his  Book,  Shakespeare  seems 
to  have  followed  the  rabbinical  legend  that  after  Solo- 
mon by  his  written  formulas  had  made  the  devils  serve 
him,  in  building  the  temple  and  other  works,  he  resolved 
to  practice  magic  no  more,  and  buried  his  book.  But 
the  devils  said  to  the  people,  "he  only  ruled  you  by  his 
book,"  and  pointed  out  where  it  was  hidden ;  so  they 
left  the  prophets  and  followed  magic. 

At  what  time  the  notion  arose  that  Solomon  had  de- 
monic familiars  does  not  appear,  but  the  story  in 
I  Kings  iii.  of  the  gift  of  wisdom  has  some  appear- 
ance of  a  reclamation  for  the  deity  of  a  credit  that  was 
popularly  ascribed  to  a  rival  power.  However  this  may 
be,  there  is  a  popular  habit  of  tracing  unusual  hu- 
man performances  to  Satan.  As  I  write  this  para- 
graph (in  Paris)  I  note  a  theatrical  placard  announc- 
ing "les  sataniques  devins"  of  Williany  de  Torre,  a  man 
who  cries  out  the  name  and  address  you  secretly  select 
in  the  Paris  Directory.  Why  not  advertise  the  divina- 
tions as  "angelic"  instead  of  satanic?  The  heavenly 
beings  have  somehow  no  great  reputation  for  clever- 
ness. Probably  this  is  due  to  the  long  association  of 
intellectuality  and  science  with  heresy. 

The  late  Lord  Lytton  ("Owen  Meredith")  wrote  a 


POSTSCRIPTA.  237 

brief  poem  on  a  version  given  him  by  Robert  Browning 
of  the  story  in  my  Preface,  of  Solomon  leaning  on 
his  staff  long  after  he  was  dead :  a  worm  gnaws  the 
end  of  the  staflf  and  Solomon  falls,  crumbled  to  dust, 
and  nothing  left  visible  but  his  crown.  A  poem  by 
Leigh  Hunt,  "The  Inevitable"  (in  some  editions,  "The 
Angel  of  Death"),  tells  of  a  man  who,  in  terror  of 
Death,  entreats  Solomon  to  transport  him  to  the  remot- 
est mountain  of  Cathay.     Solomon  does  so. 

"Solomon  wished  and  the  man  vanished  straight; 
Up  comes  the  Terror,  with  his  orbs  of  fate : 
'Solomon,'  with  a  lofty  voice  said  he, 
'How  came  that  man  here,  wasting  time  with  thee? 
I  was  to  fetch  him  ere  the  close  of  day, 
From  the  remotest  mountain  of  Cathay. 
Solomon  said,  bowing  him  to  the  ground, 
'Angel  of  death,  there  will  the  man  be  found.'  " 

The  story  of  the  Fall  of  Man,  in  Genesis,  so  fasci- 
nated Schopenhauer  that  he  was  ready  to  forgive  the 
Bible  all  its  blunders.  The  whole  world,  said  the  great 
pessimist,  looks  like  a  vast  accumulation  of  evil  devel- 
oped from  some  absurdly  small  misstep.  And  this  mis- 
step was  precisely  in  accord  with  the  philosophy  of 
Schopenhauer,  who  says  that  the  great  mistake  of  the 
universe  is  "consciousness." 

That  there  were  Schopenhaueresque  ideas  among 
some  of  the  Solomonic  school  may  be  seen  in  Koheleth 
(Ecclesiastes),  who  says,  "Be  not  overwise;  why  com- 
mit suicide?"  (vii.  16.)  I  have  remarked  elsewhere 
that  the  story  of  the  serpent  in  Eden  may  have  been 
put  there  as  a  fling  at  Solomon  and  the  scientific  people, 
but  on  the  other  hand  it  may  be  argued  that  it  was  a 
fable  devised  by  the  Solomonic  school  to  show  how 


238  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

Jahveh  was  outwitted  in  his  attempt  to  breed  a  race  of 
idiots,  for  fear  mankind  might  become  as  clever  as  him- 
self. For  it  was  not  the  serpent  that  deceived  Adam 
and  Eve,  but  Jahveh,  in  saying  the  forbidden  fruit  was 
fatal ;  the  serpent  told  them  the  truth. 

The  folk-tale  that  Solomon's  staff  was  gnawed  by  a 
worm,  and  his  crowned  body  reduced  to  dust,  suggests 
the  idea  of  grandeur  laid  low  by  some  insignificant  form, 
and  in  the  same  way  Jahveh's  creation  was  overthrown 
by  a  worm.  This  humiliation  of  Jahveh  has  been  now 
somewhat  lessened  by  the  theory  that  Satan  took  the 
form  of  the  serpent,  which  Dante  calls  the  worm,  but 
nowhere  in  the  Bible  is  there  any  confusion  of  the  rep- 
tile in  Eden  with  any  devil.  "If,"  says  Kalisch,  "the 
"serpent  represented  Satan  it  would  be  extremely  sur- 
prising that  the  former  only  was  cursed,  and  that  the 
latter  is  not  even  alluded  to."  In  Genesis  the  extreme 
cleverness  of  the  serpent  is  recognized,  and  the  truth  of 
his  statement  to  Eve  admitted,  while  Jahveh  is  shown 
in  the  ridiculous  light  of  having  his  deception  about  the 
fruit  exposed  by  a  worm,  and  betaking  himself  to  curses 
all  round.  These  be  thy  gods,  O  Christians — for  the 
Jews  absolutely  ignored  the  tale  in  all  their  scriptures, 
and  in  the  New  Testament  Paul  alone  alludes  to  it.* 

The  serpent  in  Eden  is  evidently  the  symbol  of  wis- 
dom, of  medical  art — Egyptian,  Phoenician,  Greek — 
lifted  in  the  wilderness  by  Moses,  and  recognised  by 
Jesus  ("Be  wise  as  serpents"),  with  whom  as  an  up- 
lifted healer  of  mankind  the  serpent-symbol  was  asso- 
ciated.    But  all  of  this  is  in  contradiction  to  the  curses 

*  Paul  (i  Tim.  ii.  14),  supposing  him  to  have  written  the  passage,  uses  the 
story  simply  to  justify  the  subordination  of  woman  to  man,  but  a 
witty  lady  remarked  to  me  that  according  to  the  story  in  Genesis  no  harm 
came  to  the  world  by  Eve's  eating  the  fruit  of  knowledge.  It  was  only  by  the 
man's  eating  it  that  the  thorns  sprang  up. 


POSTSCRIPTA.  239 

of  Jahvch  on  the  serpent,  and  on  those  to  whom  the 
serpent  brought  wisdom.  The  fable,  therefore,  seems 
to  be  composed  of  two  antagonistic  parts ;  it  is  a  Solo- 
monic anti-Jahvist  fable  with  an  anti-Solomonic  moral. 

In  the  Parsi  religion  the  fall  of  man  was  due  to  the 
first  man  having  been  deceived  by  the  Evil  One  into 
ascribing  the  good  things  in  creation  to  him — the  Evil 
One. 

In  the  same  way  the  Christian  ascribes  to  the  Evil 
One  man's  first  taste  of  wisdom — the  knowledge  of 
good  and  evil — and  believes  his  first  step  alx)ve  the 
brute  to  be  a  fall. 

In  the  Parsi  religion  that  fall  of  man,  by  a  lie,  was 
recovered  from  by  the  creation  of  a  new  man.  But  in 
Christendom  man  has  not  recovered  from  his  fall,  nor 
can  he  ever  recover  from  it  so  long  as  he  disregards  the 
new  man's  word,  "Be  wise  as  serpents,"  and  continues 
to  confuse  his  wisdom  with  diabolism. 

Only  through  the  tree  of  the  knowledge  of  good  and 
evil,  and  of  the  eternal  antagonism  between  them,  can 
the  tree  of  Life  be  reached. 

In  a  Gnostic  legend  Solomon  was  summoned  from 
his  tomb  and  asked,  "Who  first  named  the  name  of 
God?"     He  answered,  "The  Devil." 

Did  reason  permit  belief  in  a  personal  devil,  one 
might  recognise  his  supreme  artifice  in  thus  sheltering 
all  the  desolating  cruelties  of  men,  all  the  discords  and 
wars  that  have  degraded  mankind  into  nations  glorying 
in  their  ensigns  of  inhumanity,  under  a  divine  order. 
Thenceforth  the  enemy  of  man  became  God's  Devil, 
and  whoso  accuses  the  scourges  of  man  accuses  the 
scourges  of  God. 


240  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

Under  the  teaching  of  the  Second  Solomon  his  per- 
sonal friends  could  see  in  his  tragical  death  a  blow  of 
the  Devil  aimed  at  God,  who  was  trying  to  subdue  that 
lawless  one,  for  whose  existence  or  actions  God  was  in 
no  sense  responsible.  But  this  was  a  transient  glimpse. 
The  Devil's  God  was  soon  seen  on  his  throne  above  the 
murderers  of  the  great  man ;  the  stake  set  up  by  the 
lynchers  was  shaped  into  a  symbolical  cross ;  and  all 
the  cowardly,  treacherous,  murderous  leaders,  and  the 
vile  lynchers,  are  raised  into  agents  and  priests  of  God, 
presiding  at  a  solemn  rite  and  sacrifice  for  the  salvation 
of  mankind. 

Instead  of  salvation  a  curse  fell  on  mankind  with  that 
lie,  and  there  are  no  signs  of  recovery  from  it.  By  the 
combination  of  Church  and  State  there  has  been  evolved 
a  new  man — a  Christian  restoration  of  deceived  Yima — 
and  no  theological  development  touches  that  misbeliever 
in  every  believer.  The  Unitarian,  the  Theist,  in  their 
doctrine  of  a  divine  cosmos,  the  optimist,  the  pantheist, 
do  but  rehabilitate  and  philosophically  reinvest  the  lie 
that  the  diseases  and  agonies  in  nature  and  in  history 
are  parts  of  a  divinely  ordered  universe.  They,  too, 
must  see  Judas  and  the  lynchers  carrying  out  the  plans 
of  God.  What  then  can  they  say  of  our  contemporary 
betrayers  of  justice,  the  national  lynchers,  who  are  cru- 
cifying humanity  throughout  the  world?  These,  too, 
carrying  along  their  missionaries,  are  projecting  God 
into  history!  But  it  is  the  God  who  was  first  named 
by  the  Devil,  as  the  risen  Solomon  said,  not  the  "Eloi," 
the  source  only  of  good,  whom  the  great  friend  of  man 
saw  not  in  all  that  wild  chaos  of  violence  amid  which  he 
perished,  and  his  sublime  religion  with  him. 


POSTSCR/PTA.  241 

When  Jahveh  swears  "by  his  holiness"  (as  in  Ps. 
Ixxxix.  35,  Amos  iv.  2),  this  hohness  is  not  to  be  inter- 
preted as  moral,  or  in  any  human  sense.  It  relates  to 
ancient  philosophical  ideas  concerning  the  spiritual  and 
the  material  worlds.  The  supreme  head  of  the  spiritual 
world  is  so  far  above  the  material  world  in  majesty  that 
he  cannot  come  in  contact  with  matter,  though  this 
august  "holiness"  has  nothing  to  do  with  his  moral 
character.  Indeed  deities  were  in  all  countries  consid- 
ered quite  above  the  moral  obligations  of  men. 
Jahveh's  "holiness"  required  the  employment  of  medi- 
ators in  creation — the  Spirit  of  God  brooding  over  the 
waters,  Wisdom  the  "undefiled"  master-builder,  the 
Word — in  each  of  whom  is  some  image  of  his  quasi- 
physiological  "holiness,"  his  transcendent  imma- 
teriality. 

It  was  amid  these  ancient  conceptions  that  the  vari- 
ous cults  arose  which  attempt  to  please  and  conciliate 
gods  by  ceremonial  observances,  runes,  recited  for- 
mulas of  petition  or  adulation,  all  based  on  the  awful 
"holiness"  that  doth  hedge  about  a  god,  and  concerned 
with  points  of  heavenly  etiquette,  without  any  implica- 
tion of  a  moral  nature  in  those  distant  celestial  beings. 
In  Euripides'  "Iphigenia"  (line  20)  it  is  said:  "Some- 
times the  worship  of  the  gods,  not  being  conducted  with 
exactness,  overturns  one's  life."  In  the  same  vein 
Koheleth  (Ecclesiastes,  v.  i,  2)  :  "Keep  thy  foot  when 
thou  goest  into  the  house  of  God ;  for  to  draw  nigh  to 
him  with  attention  is  better  than  to  bring  the  sacrifices 
of  fools  who  know  not  that  they  are  ( ?  may  be)  doing 
wrong.  Be  not  rash  with  thy  mouth,  and  let  not  thy 
heart  be  hasty  to  utter  a  word  before  God ;  for  God  is 


242  SOLOMONIC  LITERATURE. 

in  heaven,  and  thou  on  earth ;  therefore  let  thy  words 
be  few." 

But  in  every  race  ethical  development  reaches  a  stage 
in  which  these  majestic  beings,  concerned  only  about 
their  worship  according  to  etiquette,  are  challenged. 
Thus  in  the  "Cyclops"  of  Euripides  (xxxv.  3-5),  Ulys- 
ses says :  "O  Jove,  guardian  of  strangers,  behold  these 
things ;  for  if  thou  regardest  them  not,  thou,  Jove,  being 
nought,  art  vainly  esteemed  a  god." 

From  the  first  Solomon  to  the  last,  the  whole  intellec- 
tual development  in  Judea,  which  I  have  called  Solo- 
monic, means  the  subjection  of  all  conceptions  of  the 
divine  nature  and  laws  to  the  moral  sentiment  and  the 
reason  of  man.  It  was  no  denial  of  invisible  beings,  or 
of  man's  relation  to  the  universe,  but  a  demand  that  all 
definitions  and  conceptions  should  be  approached 
through  science,  experience  and  wisdom. 

Solomon,  and  the  Second  Solomon,  rest  in  their  un- 
known graves ;  their  wisdom  is  corrupted ;  but  their 
genius  survives  in  the  earth.  Of  old  it  was  said  God 
looked  down  from  heaven  on  the  children  of  men,  and 
found  that  there  was  "none  that  doeth  good,  no  not 
one."  But  it  is  now  man  who,  with  eyes  illumined  by 
the  brave  and  cultured  Solomons  of  all  lands  and  ages, 
looks  upon  the  gods  to  see  if  there  be  one  that  doeth 
good.  The  best  of  them  are  defended  only  by  a  plea 
that  evil  is  the  mask  of  their  benevolence.  But  it  is  not 
humanly  moral  to  do  evil  that  good  may  come. 

Our  great  Omar  Khayyam,  by  Fitzgerald's  help,  says  : 

"  O  Thou,  who  Man  of  baser  earth  didst  make, 
And  ev'n  with  Paradise  devise  the  Snake: 

For  all  the  Sin  wherewith  the  face  of  Man 
Is  blacken'd — Man's  forgiveness  give — and  take!" 


POSTSCR/PTA.  243 

The  agreement  may  be  fair  enough  so  far  as  it  con- 
cerns Sin,  in  the  theological  sense,  but  no  Omnipotence, 
with  unlimited  choice  of  means  to  ends,  could  be  for- 
given for  the  agonies  of  nature,  even  did  they  result  in 
benefits, — as  generally  they  do  not,  so  far  as  is  known 
to  the  experience  of  mankind. 

It  may  be,  as  the  American  orator  said,  "An  honest 
god's  the  noblest  work  of  man" ;  and  innumerable 
hearts  enshrine  fair  personal  ideals  under  uncompre- 
hended  names  for  deity ;  but  each  such  private  ideal  is 
unconsciously  antagonistic  to  every  "collectivist"  deity 
to  whom  the  creation  or  the  government  of  the  world  is 
ascribed. 

The  human  heart  kneels  before  its  vision,  and  with 
Mary  Magdalene  cries  Rabboni,  My  Master ;  but  The- 
ology recognizes  only  the  perfunctory  Rabbi,  and  car- 
ries her  beloved  off  into  union  with  thunder-god,  war- 
god,  or  with  a  deified  predatory  Cosmos.  Yet  will  not 
the  heart  be  bereaved  of  its  vision ;  it  still  sees  a  smile 
of  tenderness  in  the  universe.  And  philosophy,  though 
it  regard  that  smile  as  a  reflection  of  the  heart's 
own  love,  may  with  all  the  more  certainty  itself  find  a 
religion  in  this  maternal  divinity  in  the  earth,  ever 
aspiring  to  its  own  supreme  humanity. 

Solomon  passes,  Jesus  passes,  but  the  Wisdom  they 
loved  as  Bride,  as  Mother,  abides,  however  veiled  in 
fables.  Slic  is  still  inspiring  the  unfinished  work  of 
creation,  and  her  delight  is  with  the  children  of  men. 


INDEX. 


Abimelech,  178. 

Abisliag,  12,  25,  45  et  seq.,  95. 

Abraliani,  156. 

Absalom,  45. 

Abyssinians,  5g. 

Ac/s,  167  et  seq. 

Adam,  73. 

Adonijah,  7,  24,  36,  45,  95. 

Agur,  ^i,  54  et  seq. 

Ahasuerus,  119. 

Ahijah,  37. 

Ahithophel,  46. 

Ahura  Mazda,  64.  75  et  seq.,  1S5  et 

seq. 
Akbar,  194. 
Aladdin,  234. 
Alford,  126,  162,  188. 
American  Jahvists,  42. 
Ammon,  31. 
Analiita,  183. 

Armaiti,  62  et  seq.,  70  et  seq.,  125. 
Asmodeus,  186,  235. 
Asuga,  15. 
Augustine,  218. 
Avesta,  the,  59  et  seq. 

Baptism,  182  et  seq.,  187  et  seq. 

Bar  Jesus,  169. 

Bathsheba,  5  et  seq.,  17  et  seq.,  24, 

30,  48,  67,  loi,  179  et  seq. 
Ben  Sira,  Jesus,  68,  113,  152,  213. 
Bernstein,  47. 
Bethlehem,  Star  of,  183. 
Bible,  the,  as  a  fetish,  44;  falsified, 

102;  spurious  sentences  in  the,  106. 
Birth-legends,  201. 
Blemish,  without,  147. 
Boston,  41. 
Brooding  spirit,  123. 
Budde,  Professor  Karl,  89. 


Buddha,  13,  15,  72,  80. 
Bunyan,  130. 

Carlyle,  209. 

Charlemagne,  22. 

Cheyne,  Professor,  7;,  107. 

Chezib,  47. 

Christ,  118,  137,  165  et  seq.,  166.    See 

/esus. 
Christian  nations,  policy  of,  57. 
Christism,  132. 
Cinderella,  96. 
Colenso,  37,  45. 
Comparative  studies,  20. 
Cornill,  Professor  C.  H.,  89  et  seq. 
Cross,  the,  232. 

Darkness  and  light,  74  et  seq. 

Darmesteter,  6ij,  83,  86. 

David,  lineage  of,  4;  in  his  dotage, 

7,  12;    last  words    uttered   by,  8; 

son  of,  207  et  seq. 
Davidson,  Dr.,  132. 
Death,  in  the  Solomonic  proverbs 

81 ;  in  the  Zoroastrian  religion,  82. 
Deuteronomy  41  et  seq. 
Devil,  the,  132  et  seq.,  239. 
Didron,  M.,  125. 
Dillon,  54,  55. 
Dove,  the,  147. 

Earth,  73. 

Ecclesiastes,  104  et  seq. 
Ecclesiasticus,  iii  et  seq. 
El-Ely6n,  152. 
Elohim,  2,  26. 
Elohism,  74  et  seq. 
Ely6n,  141,  1,3. 
Emerson,  228. 


24s 


246 


INDEX. 


English  tolerance   toward  idolatry, 

33,  195- 
Esau,  137. 
Esther,  62. 
Eucharist,  170. 
Eusebius,  132. 
Evil,  personality  of,  228. 
Ewald,  211. 

Faizi,  the  Persian  poet,  88. 

Fall  of  man,  237. 

Fear-of-the-Lord  wisdom,  77  et  seq. 

First-born,  134  et  seq.,  139  et  seq. 

Folly,  Dame,  75  et  seq.,  215. 

Fo.x,  George,  136. 

Fravashis,  86. 

Frederick  the  Great,  85. 

Free  agency,  116. 

Fritzsche,  112. 

Garrison,  William  Lloyd,  230. 

Gibbon,  115,  176. 

Gil  Bias,  164. 

Goethe,  107. 

Gospel,  the  Fourth,  204. 

Hadad,  36. 

Harischandra,  144. 

Harvard  University,  41. 

Hebrews,  Epistle  to  the,  129  et  seq. 

Herder,  go,  94. 

Hilkiah,  41. 

Hillel,  173- 

Holy  Spirit,  124,  136  et  seq.,  184,  189, 

221. 
Hunt,  Leigh,  237. 

Illegitimacy,  7.  10. 

Immortality,  belief  in,  80. 

Infancy,  the,  201;  Gospel  of  the,  i~i. 

Inman,  Dr.,  83. 

Isaiah,  195, 197. 

Jahveh,  2,  26,  38. 

Jahvism,  32,  54  et  seq.,  74  et  seq.,  89, 
106  et  seq.,  iii  et  seq.,  118  et  seq., 
132,  143,  191,  194  et  seq.,  201  et 
seq.,  20S,  233. 

Jedidiah,  i. 

Jemshid,  22. 


Jeremiah,  42,  135. 

Jeroboam,  37. 

Jerusalem,  34,  92. 

Jesus,  131,  135  et  seq.,  147,  148,  162; 
rebukes  the  Jahvist  superstition, 
57;  genealogies  of,  150;  the  Paul- 
ine dehumanization  of,  164  et  seq.; 
the  mythological  mantle  of  Sol- 
omon fallen  on,  176  et  seq.;  tempt- 
ation of,  1S9;  as  a  God,  199  et  seq.; 
Lazarus  and,  202  et  seq. ;  sayings 
of,  212;  in  relation  to  woman,  214 
et  seq.;  His  study  of  Ecclesiasti- 
cus,  216  et  seq.;  teachings  of,  222 
et  seq.;  the  realm  of  evil  and,  225  ; 
separation  of  good  and  evil  by, 
228.    See  Christ. 

Job,  51  et  seq.,  85,  144. 

John  the  Baptizer,  183  et  seq. 

Josephus,  155,  159,  161. 

Josiah,  39. 

Judea,  the  bodily  incarnation  of  a 
deity,  129. 

Justice,  king  of,  154. 

Koheleth,  67,  99,  104  et  seq.,  237. 

Lazarus,  177,  202  et  seq. 
Lemuel,  King,  67. 
Light  and  darkness,  74  et  seq. 
Lytton,  Lord,  236. 

Magdalene,  Mary,  102,  190,  233. 
Mahol,  2. 
Martha,  190. 

Martineau,  Russell,  93,  96. 
Mary,  189  et  seq. 
Maurice,  Rev.  F.  D.,  104. 
Maya,  13. 

McGiffert,  Dr.,  134. 
Melchizedek,  120,  151  et  seq. 
Mephistopheles,  235. 
Miracles,  165  et  seq.,  176  et  seq. 
Missionary  propagandism,  171. 
Most  High,  141. 
Miiller,  Max,  152. 

Nathan,  6  et  seq. 
Necessity,  195. 
Neferhotap,  107. 


INDEX. 


247 


Newman,  Professor,  196. 
Nicholson,  Dr.,  222. 

Oberammergau,  192,  234. 
Omar  Khayyam,  71,  73,  76.  lOQ.  173. 
195.  242. 

Paine,  Thomas,  43. 

Parsi  religion,  239. 

Passion  Play,  193. 

Passion,  the,  147. 

Paul,  80,  132  et  scq.,  166  et  seq.,  189, 

204  et  seq. 
Peace,  Prince  of,  120,  160, 185. 
Peace,  the  queen  of,  100. 
Persia,  62. 
Peter,  157. 

Petrie,  Mr.  Flinders,  28. 
Pharaoh-Necho,  39. 
Pharaoli's  daughter,  28,  30. 
Pharisee,  Simon  the,  216. 
Philo,  125. 
Pilate,  232. 

Polycrates,  ring  of,  31. 
Preacher,  the,  105  et  seq. 
Proverbs,  Book  of,  59  et  seq. 
Proverbs,  Solomonic,  87. 
Psalter  of  Solomon,  118. 

Quakerism,  136. 

Read,  General  Meredith,  115. 
Rebekah,  13. 
Rcnan,92, 106,  121,  204. 
Resurrection  from  death,    128,   174, 

184. 
Reuben,  47. 
Keuss,  Edward,  89. 
Rezon,  36. 

King  of  Solomon,  1S5. 
Ring,  legend  of  the,  99. 
Rousseau,  231. 

Sacrifices,  human,  35,  135. 
Sadi,  115. 
Salem,  155  et  seq. 
Samaritan  woman,  the,  219. 
Satan,  149. 

Satans,  Solomon  and  the,  34. 
Saviour,  the,  200  et  scq. 
Scarlet  Woman,  76. 


Schopenhauer,  237. 

Selah,  53. 

Sermon  on  the  Mount,  213  etseq. 
219  etseq. 

Seven,  Queen  of  the,  75. 

Seven  Sages,  the,  16  et  seq. 

Seven,  the  number,  16  et  seq.,  61  et 
seq. 

Shakespeare,  118,  175,  236. 

Sheba,  Queen  of,  59  et  seq.,  121,  164, 
234. 

Shelah,  47  et  seq. 

Shelley,  119. 

Sheol,  149. 

Shiloh,  49. 

Shulamith,  92  et  seq.,  9s  et  seq.,  190. 

Shunammite,  19,  25. 

Simon,  the  Pharisee,  216. 

Sin,  172,  243. 

Sleeping  Hero,  121. 

Smith,  Joseph,  the  Mormon,  41. 

Solomon,  mythology  of,  i;  his  wis- 
dom, 2;  traditions  concerning  him, 
3  etseq.;  judgment  of,  14  et  seq.; 
the  Tibetan,  14,  19;  the  wives  of, 
24  et  seq.,  36;  not  a  sensualist,  27; 
commercial  regime  established  by 
him,  29;  his  idolatry,  30  et  seq.; 
his  intermarriage  with  foreigners, 
27,  30;  his  ring,  31,  185,  237;  the 
Satans  and,  34  et  seq.;  in  the 
Hexateuch,  41  et  seq.;  the  Queen 
of  Sheba  and,  60  et  seq.:  Moslem 
mythology  of,  64;  writings  as- 
cribed to  him,  65  et  seq.;  his  idol- 
atry, 77;  his  proverbs,  87;  in  the 
Song  of  Songs,  96  et  seq.;  his 
idolatrous  views,  113;  his  worldly 
wisdom  and  ethics,  113  et  seq.; 
evoked  in  The  Wisdom  of  Solo- 
mofi,  119  et  seq.;  in  the  Epistle  to 
the  Hebrews,  138  et  seq.;  trans- 
figured into  a  type  of  divine  and 
eternal  Smship,  160;  Christ  and, 
161;  his  mythological  mantle  falls 
on  Jesus,  i76et  seq.;  the  heir  of  his 
Godhead,  194  et  seq.;  the  second, 
200;  tlie  last,  207  et  seq.;  his  cult, 
211;  in  European  Folklore,  23;;  the 
folk-tale  of  his  staff,  238. 


248 


INDEX. 


Solomonism,  51  et  seq.,  iii. 

Solon,  22. 

Soma  plant,  157. 

Song  of  Songs,  89  et  seq. 

Son  of  David,  120,  188,  207  et  seq. 

Son  of  God,  142  et  seq.,  148. 

Son  of  Man,  72,  142  et  seq.,  148. 

Sophia  Solomontos,  119  et  seq. 

Soul,  85  et  seq. 

South,  Queen  of  the,  208  et  seq. 

Spirit  of  God,  development  of  the, 

122  et  seq. 
Strickland,  Agnes,  210. 
Sun-worship,  43. 
Supper,  the  Last,  170  et  seq.,  193. 

Talmudic  legend,  10,  18,  30. 

Tamar,  48,  179. 

Temptation  of  Jesus,  189. 

Tennyson,  104. 

Theocratic  principle,  the,  129. 

Tirza,  92. 

Toleration,  religious,  19;.  332. 

Transfiguration,  the,  191. 

Tyndall,  105. 

Tzedek,  158. 

Underworld,  the,  82. 
Uriah,  the  Hittite,  9,  30. 


Usinara,  King,  146. 

Vanity  of  vanities,  105  et  seq. 
Vaudeville  songs,  91. 
Vendidad,  16,  72  et  seq. 
Vice  societies,  94. 
Virgin,  the,  180  et  seq. 
Visakha,  13,  18  et  seq. 
Vistaspa,  King,  65. 

Wace,  112. 

Wandering  Jew,  119  et  seq.,  206. 
Will,  freedom  of  the,  116. 
Wisdom,    personification  of,  68  et 

seq.;  in  cosmogony,  69;  Book  of, 

III  et  seq.;  as  the  Mother,  12;. 
Wisdom  of  Solomon,  the  book,  118 

et  seq.;  compared  with  the  Epistle 

to  the  Hebrews,  etc.,  133. 
Wise  Man,  159. 
Wise  Men,  181  et  seq. 
Woman,  taken  in  adultery,  21S. 
Word,  the,  126  et  seq. 
Wrath,  the,  224. 

Zadok,  159. 

Zoroaster,  62,  71,  77,  82,  84,  135,  177, 

186  et  seq.,  195. 
Zoroastrian  theology,  141,  229. 


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